CityFibre fills broadband connection voucher gap

Urban fibre network owner CityFibre has stepped into the void left by the sudden suspension of the government’s small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) broadband connection voucher scheme after it ran out of money last week.

Administered by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as part of Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), the scheme had helped more than 40,000 small businesses upgrade their broadband connectivity with grants of up to £3,000.

However this funding was not ring-fenced, and once the available pot ran out of cash, the programme was suspended.

CityFibre is now running a limited-time offer, which will expire on 5 November 2015, for businesses located in its so-called “gigabit cities” of Aberdeen, Coventry, Edinburgh, Huddersfield, Peterborough and York.

During the offer period it will waive the connection fee of up to £2,500 paid by new customers, working with its internet service provider partners to cover the costs, subject to a site survey.

The supplier estimated that there are around 55,000 businesses within reach of its networks in these cities.

CityFibre operations director James Thomas said: “We were great supporters of the government’s connection voucher scheme as a catalyst to encourage businesses to upgrade to ultra-fast services and more modern pure fibre networks.

“We are delighted to be able to help those businesses that have missed out on the voucher, giving them a final chance to get connected to transformational services on future-proof pure fibre infrastructure in the cities we serve.”