Other broadband options
If your home or business is not covered by any ISP’s commercial plans or any of the current CDS contracts there are other potential options.
Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme
As part of its investment in Project Gigabit, the government is providing up to £210 million worth of voucher funding nationwide to provide help for people suffering from slow broadband speeds in rural areas.
Home and businesses in rural locations which meet the following criteria can use vouchers to support the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections when part of a group project:
- Existing broadband speeds are less than 100Mbps.
- A gigabit capable network isn’t likely to be built to that area commercially in the near future.
- There is no government-funded contract planned or in place to improve the network already.
Challenge Fund
Our Community Challenge Fund scheme enables local communities to select an approved private sector partner and co-produce broadband solutions that work best for them with financial support and advice from CDS.
The broadband universal service
As of March 2020, anyone who can’t get a download speed of 10 Mbps and an upload speed of 1 Mbps can request an upgraded connection. You can make this request to BT and you do not need to be an existing customer of BT to apply.
The advice from Ofcom is to visit the BT website – if you can – in the first instance to carry out an initial check of whether you could be eligible, and find out more information on how to apply.
More information is also available on the Ofcom website.