Businesses, schools and hospitals in Bath & North East Somerset are to benefit from major investment in the fastest Broadband yet in the UK.
The authority, jointly with Bristol, is one of six areas chosen to pilot the first stage of a £200 million scheme aimed at supporting new industries, creating jobs and stimulating investment in the local economy. It will also allow firms to reach more customers online by delivering superfast speeds of 1 Gigabit, or 1,000 Mb/second.
On Sunday the government launched the project announcing the six pilot areas as Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, West Sussex, Coventry and Warwickshire, Bristol and Bath & North East Somerset, West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. The pilot launch is the first step in a four-year programme unveiled by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, at Spring Budget, to stimulate the market and encourage the growth of full fibre up and down the country.
The launch has been welcomed by Councillor Paul Myers (Conservative, Midsomer Norton Redfield), Cabinet Member for Economic and Community Regeneration.
He said: “I’m proud that Bath and North East Somerset have been chosen to be at the vanguard of this cutting-edge development. It is recognition of the investment already taking place here and will provide a major boost for the local economy.
“But as well as benefiting business and employment, it will also have a much wider impact on the local community which is great news for residents, among others.
“Our Economic Development Team is working with colleagues from Bristol and central Government on the final details of how the investment will roll out across Bath, North East Somerset and Bristol."
Despite no final details on what the broadband roll our pilot scheme will look like and mean for B&NES Councillor Meyers said that potential additional benefits of the pilot could include: Hospitals could share High Definition quality graphics of medical scans in seconds, improving diagnosis speeds. School classrooms could see a big increase in the number of pupils who can stream educational videos at the same time. Creating enough public and private sector demand to reduce the risk of building new full-fibre networks.