SHIRE Hall has been awarded funding worth £2m from central government to increase faster broadband coverage, and the money will be allocated to parts of the Forest of Dean.

With the first phase of the Fastershire broadband project, in partnership with BT, nearing completion the county council is now looking ahead to the next phase of bringing faster broadband to more homes and business across Gloucestershire.

The council approved revisions to the Fastershire broadband strategy at a Cabinet meeting on 16th December, strengthening the commitment to ensure that by the end of 2018 everyone in Gloucestershire will be able to access the broadband services they need.

The Fastershire broadband project is a partnership between Gloucestershire County Council and Herefordshire Council, and under the first phase of the project around 81 per cent of premises in Gloucestershire can now access fibre broadband, all at over 30Mbps.

This updated strategy looks toward the next planned phase of deployment, which recognises that further work to improve speeds is required on top of Fastershire’s current contract with BT and commercial fibre rollouts by providers such as Virgin and BT.

Gloucestershire’s project has been boosted by additional funding from the South West £10m fund which has been made available from central government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport to provide ultrafast broadband giving download speeds in excess of 100Mbps.

Gloucestershire has been awarded £2m from this fund, which may be match funded by the county council, and this money will be used in the exchange areas of Cinderford, Coleford, Drybrook, Longhope, Lydbrook, St. Briavels and Whitecroft, aiming to give 100 per cent coverage.

These areas are eligible for reinvestment as BT’s deployment is now complete. Fastershire’s plans for the Forest build on the Cotswolds second phase deployment in contract with Gigaclear to provide 6,500 homes and businesses with ultrafast broadband and where the first communities are going live now after just two months of engineering work.

Other areas of the county will be eligible for second phase investment once the deployment contract with BT is completed.

Cllr Mark Hawthorne, leader of Gloucestershire County Council said: “I’m delighted to announce the communities in the Forest of Dean that will benefit from this extra investment. Our work continues as we improve the broadband infrastructure right around the county so that businesses and communities of all sizes can grow.”

A contract for this next phase in the Forest of Dean is expected to be awarded in spring next year.

For more detail about the second phase of the Fastershire project, which will extend the coverage even further around the county, visit http://www.fastershire.com/where-when/strategy.