New investment for Gigabit Broadband for Herefordshire

Thousands of people in rural Herefordshire will get next-generation gigabit broadband built to them under a £5 billion plan to level up internet access across the UK.

New details have been published about the government's £5 billion Project Gigabit, the biggest broadband rollout scheme in British history, reveal that up to 64,600 rural homes and businesses in the region are in line to be connected to lightning-fast speeds.

These properties are not currently due for a gigabit upgrade from broadband companies or other public schemes. So the government is subsidising building new internet infrastructure to reach them, capable of blistering download speeds of 1,000 megabits per second. 

Nearly 96 per cent of premises in Herefordshire already have superfast speeds of at least 30 megabits per second, which is enough to support most people's everyday online activities today. But as technology develops and becomes more data-intensive, these connections may struggle to keep up.

Gigabit-capable connections provide the speed and reliability needed for decades to come, enabling several people to work from home, stream ultra high definition video content and play next-generation online games at the same time.

This will accelerate the country's recovery from covid, fire up high-growth sectors such as tech and the creative industries, bring the speed and reliability people need to start and run businesses

The government expects to invest between £67 million and £113 million to connect hard-to-reach premises in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, with the final funding amount to be confirmed when procurement begins. 

Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said: "We're investing tens of millions in Herefordshire to put an end to the digital divide where rural farms or villages cannot access the quality broadband available in many towns and cities.

"It's all part of our record £5 billion Project Gigabit to give homes and businesses left behind in the broadband race access to the best speeds around and help us achieve our mission to level up the country."

Herefordshire is one of ten English regions to benefit from today's announcement, which will see an extra 567,000 premises connected via Project Gigabit. Other regions include Gloucestershire, Cheshire, Dorset, Devon & Somerset, Essex, Lincolnshire & East Riding and North Yorkshire.