LOCAL councils across the north are to benefit from £15 million in funding to boost the broadband infrastructure.
The funding from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) through its Local Full Fibre Networks Programme (LFFN) will be distributed across the ten councils outside of Belfast and will drive drive greater investment in fibre broadband and digital infrastructure.
The ten councils made the bid for funding under the moniker of the Full Fibre Northern Ireland Consortium (FFNI).
This substantial funding award will be used to deliver full fibre to approximately 880 public sector sites by March 2021. The project will also enable councils to significantly develop their ability to deliver services and improve access for communities and residents. It is hoped that this will be the first of many such investments over the next few years.
Currently only 12 per cent of premises in Northern Ireland have access to full fibre connectivity and outside the major towns, the figure is much lower.
Mayor of Antrim and Newtownabbey, councillor Paul Michael said they are delighted to have secured the additional funding.
"Investing in connectivity is essential for economic growth and prosperity, and will help to further establish both the Borough of Antrim and Newtownabbey and all of Northern Ireland as a digital destination for investment, jobs and business infrastructure," he said.
"This is an excellent example of local councils working together for the benefit of the whole region.”
Minister for Digital, Margot James added:
"We're building a Britain that's fit for the future, and our plans for a national full fibre broadband network underpin our modern Industrial Strategy. This £15 million boost for gigabit speeds in Northern Ireland will benefit homes and businesses across the country and I congratulate the Full Fibre Northern Ireland Consortium in its successful bid.”
The news comes as it was reported by Ofcom that average broadband speeds received by UK households have risen by almost 20 per cent in the last year
The average download speed has passed the 50 Mbit/s mark, rising by 18 per cent in the last year to 54.2 Mbit/s, according to the regulator's Home Broadband Speeds report.
The report, which compares the speeds of different broadband packages using data from monitors installed on people's broadband routers, found upload speeds have also increased by 15 per cent to 7.2 Mbit/s. Both download and upload speeds have more than doubled in the last five years.
The study also looked at how different broadband packages affect people's experience of streaming video content, with those using superfast connections or faster being able to stream Netflix films or shows in ultra-high definition (UHD) without buffering in almost every case.
Only one in 10 homes with basic, copper broadband were able to stream their favourite shows in UHD.
Ofcom said many of those still on standard broadband were now able to get superfast connections, often without paying more.
Full-fibre packages, where fibre cables run all the way from the exchange to people's homes, performed better than equivalent copper-based packages in almost every measure - including both download and upload speeds.
Older, copper-based broadband services are more likely to suffer a drop in speed during evenings when more people are going online.
