Department for Culture Media and Sport
Part of the Government’s commitment to have the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015, is to ensure that rural, as well as urban areas, are provided with good online access with a minimum of 2Mbps
The Rural Community Broadband Fund, jointly funded by Defra and BDUK, is aimed at the 10 per cent hardest to reach areas which risk only receiving standard 2Mbps broadband.
The fund will have up to £20 million for small community projects to implement enhanced or superfast broadband solutions beyond the standard connection. BDUK is currently undertaking a significant amount of work in Cumbria, alongside local communities, as it develops its proposals to bring superfast broadband to the county. The Rural Community Broadband Toolkit (PDF 174kb) has been developed for local projects and support communities who also want to play their part in bringing superfast broadband to their areas.