Rural broadband boost for Wales with £2m scheme

Rural broadband in Wales is to get a £2m boost through a support scheme backed by the Welsh Assembly Government.



People living in areas without broadband access will be entitled to an assembly grant of up to £1,000 each to fund contracts with service providers.


Wales’ deputy first minister, Ieuan Wyn Jones, said anyone without broadband access would be entitled to make an application.


President of the Farmers’ Union of Wales, Gareth Vaughan, welcomed the scheme and said he would be among the applicants for the grant.


Mr Vaughan spoke out earlier this year when farmers in parts of Wales, with little or no broadband reception, were told they would have no option but to file their VAT returns online in future.


Mr Vaughan was one of many farmers who said he would have to pay his accountant to file his VAT returns online because the broadband reception at his farm near Newtown was so poor.


“This is a step in the right direction, I applaud the Welsh Assembly Government for this initiative,” he said.


Mr Vaughan has invested in equipment that gives him limited broadband access but he said that if the farm needed to register stock online it had to be done at midnight when more bandwidth was available.


Initial funding of about £2m has been allocated for the broadband initiative, with discussions under way to draw down European money from the Rural Development Plan. Details of how applications can be made will be published later in July.

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