Nearly all households and businesses in the Vale of White Horse can now access superfast broadband, according to new figures announced by the Better Broadband for Oxfordshire partnership.
More than 96 per cent of premises located in Vale of White Horse District Council can now access broadband speeds more than 24 Megabits per second - an essential for homes and businesses of all sizes across the region.
The latest communities to benefit from the upgrade in the Vale have been in Wantage, Rowstock and Coleshill.
Improving overall broadband services has been a long-term priority for both the Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire district councils who provided at total of £1.25 million contribution to the £10.68 million second phase of the plan. The rest of the funds came from BT, Oxfordshire County Council, local enterprise partnerships and government match funding.
The Better Broadband of Oxfordshire partnership programme achieved its target of 95 per cent coverage of superfast broadband across Oxfordshire in December 2017 and expects to achieve over 96 per cent coverage throughout the whole county by December 2018.
Councillor Mike Murray, cabinet member for regeneration and development at Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “Delivering this essential infrastructure is a great achievement and positively impacts our community. We are working with providers to explore using innovative technologies for business to make the most of the digital economy and communities to connect to the digital world”.
Small and medium businesses can also take advantage of the government’s gigabit broadband voucher scheme, which can be worth up to £3,000 to upgrade their internet connection. Groups of residents can apply for a voucher of up to £500 for each domestic connection – as long as business users in the scheme are the main beneficiaries. Businesses and residents can check their eligibility via gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk
