Government invests £1m in fast broadband

May 27, 2017

Government establishment the Technology Strategy Board reported today that it will invest £1m to help forward innovation in the UK by helping companies research ‘ultra-fast’ broadband.

The Technology Strategy Board is backed by the Department for Innovation, Universities, and Skills which will determine how the money is distributed.

The new broadband speeds will be hopefully anywhere between 100 to 1,000 times faster than broadband connections now, which average between one and 10Gbs.

Currently there are 13 separate projects being funded by the Board which hopefully will lead to more funding for even better future European Union research projects and partnerships.

The projects include many leading research centres, such as one that includes Ericsson, Cambridge University and BT, which is studying the best cost-efficient ways to provide 10Gbs speeds.

The speeds of 10GBS hopefully will be able to reach homes and businesses throughout the UK, although there is no official timeline as of right now.

There are numerous teams approaching the projects, with the TSB team looking at making a fast European network for broadband across the Union, while BT is looking at providing nationwide coverage of 40Mbps.

Lead technologist of the TSB, Mike Biddle, said that the work being completed by the TSB funding will hopefully lead to optical broadband networking across Europe.

He also commented that this will lead to even more flexible work accommodation across the country as people discover how enriching faster broadband can be.