Superfast Broadband Programme: Market Test Pilots
Details on how the Government is exploring options for extending superfast broadband coverage beyond 95% of the UK.
Documents
Details
Current plans will deliver superfast broadband to 95% of the UK by 2017.
However, the Government wants to extend coverage as far beyond this as possible. We’re working with suppliers to see how we can do this through a series of pilot projects.
The projects are testing technology, financial and operating models capable of delivering superfast broadband to the hardest to reach parts of the UK.
Through the pilots we are generating evidence about:
- the cost of delivering in hard to reach areas
- levels of take-up of different technologies
- performance and customer experience of services provided.
We also hope to build capacity and capability in the supplier market by sharing lessons learned from the projects.
Emerging finding from the pilot projects are available in the BDUK Market Test Pilots: Emerging findings document.
Links to supplier updated feasibility reports will appear on this page shortly.
The pilots will run until March 2016. Further evidence and findings will be published later this year. More details about the Government’s plans to support the delivery of broadband in rural areas are included in The Digital Communications Infrastructure Strategy.
Details about the State aid clearance process for the Market Test Pilots can be found on the Market Test Pilot State aid page.
Updates to this page
Last updated 19 March 2015 + show all updates
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Updated following the publication of The Digital Communications Infrastructure Strategy.
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Market Test Pilots supplier feasibility reports and the BDUK summary of initial findings from the feasibility phase now published.
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First published.