LIVERPOOL is set to battle it out with nine other UK cities for a share of £100m to boost broadband speeds.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the UK’s four capitals – London, Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh – will all benefit from the funding announced by Chancellor George Osborne in the Autumn Statement.
Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, Bradford, Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle, Nottingham, Birmingham and Bristol will now vie for the remaining six places on the scheme.
The funding will be used to create “super-connected” cities with 80-100Mbps broadband access and bidders will have to show how they will use that to “drive growth” and attract new businesses.
Liverpool is already at the forefront of the drive towards high-speed internet access, thanks to the Liverpool FibreNet scheme that will give the city some of the fastest commercially-available broadband internet speeds in the world. So hopes will be high that Liverpool can win more funding to boost speeds still further.
Mr Hunt said: “The internet is now a fundamental part of our economy. We must ensure the UK has a broadband network fit for the digital age.
“Transforming communities into super-connected cities will enable them to compete with the world’s top digital cities. It will help them attract new jobs and new investment and make the UK a place where digital businesses look to come.
“It will help our creative industries and hi-tech companies grow while making the UK even more attractive to overseas firms.”
BT and Virgin will strengthen their networks in the winning cities to deliver higher broadband speeds and the money can be used to provide coverage in areas where the companies will not go.
The winners will be announced in the Budget in March.
BT and Virgin have pledged to strengthen their networks in the winning cities to deliver 80-100Mbps broadband speeds. Each city’s share of the £100m can be used to provide coverage in areas where BT and Virgin will not go or services beyond what the market will provide.
A BT spokesman said: “It is important for the public and private sector to work together if the UK is to have the best possible broadband network and so we look forward to working with the selected cities to see what can be achieved.”
Liverpool is one of the test-beds for the Government-backed FibreNet project which will offer connection speeds of 10Gbps (gigabits-per-second) – 100 times faster than what is currently available in the UK.
The £1m project went live in November, when project leader AIMES Grid Services urged small firms and other organisations within the areas covered to sign up for a 12-month free pilot.
