Hunt splashes £56.9m broadband cash on Wales

Wales has won broadband funds of £56.9m from the Coalition's £530m investment pot, following a successful bid for the cash from the Welsh Assembly. However, the Welsh government needs to match the investment if it hopes to achieve its "superfast" broadband upgrade plan to reach 90 per cent of homes and businesses in Wales. " …

[BongoJoe]

Jobs for the boyos

Let me guess as a resident of the oft-overlooked Llyn Peninsula.

The money will be used to beef up the M4 corridor and going as far as Pembrokeshire where it will all mysteriously dry up.

If there is anything left over for the North then it will be only for those in and around Llandudno Junction's min-Brussels enclave.

We've seen these Welsh superhighways come and go, after digging up the roads, but it never seems to be for the likes of us.

Holmes because, well, it's elementry.

[Da Weezil]

The well has been dry here since ADSLMax arrived....

Pembrokeshire? I doubt it will get this far.. it will run out around Llanelli. We recently found that one exchange in this county has been quietly LLU'd by Sky (If Sam Knows is to be believed), its in the east of the county and boasts less than 4000 lines, the rest of the county is 20cn country, NO LLU no BT investment - the WBC dates were withdrawn - no doubt because BT Group were busily flinging money at areas that already have faster access - a strategy that has not paid huge dividends if the reports are to be believed, No significant upgrade investment has been made in our services locally for years.

So I think Pembrokeshire will end up paying through the nose for the slowest speeds and lowest caps on the oldest equipment - about time OFCOM sorted out that situation and dropped the pricing to reflect the lower performance of 20cn.

[Alan Bourke]

I was on holiday on Llyn last year.

Lovely part of the world but had to drive to Pwllheli Library for the t'internet.

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't know until today.......

That News International would be the installation and configuration firm to deliver to Whales.

Strewth!

[G4Z]

blehhhhh

pfft, move somewhere more urban with the extra noise, traffic etc etc etc if you want better broadband.

2mb is quite enough for email and web browsing and I don't understand why the rest of us should subsidise rural broadband. It makes no financial sense.

[Ragarath]

ignorant much

So all the businesses in the country have to suffer because your selfish? I don't want to keep your taxes lower by paying for services don't get either but I have no choice.

Why is 2mb enough? If it is enough for people in the country what your saying is it is enough for everyone. I expect you to be campaigning to make all connections 2mb in the future. After all that would also make financial sense.

[stefan 5]

shut up

Oh do shut up you pleb. why should anybody have to move to get faster broadband?

[Da Weezil]

Lights out?

Maybe the same should apply to you getting the Gas, Refined Oil products and Power generated from this area then.

[G R Goslin]

Wow

Wow! 50m for the whole of Wales, while single counties in England get the same. This is bringing Wales to the forefront of high speed broadband. I should coco.

[s. pam]

Do they have 'lectrickery?

How on earth will my taxes subsidising their pr0n habits work without 'lectrickery?

Damnit, they just got running water and indoor dunnies!

[Da Weezil]

Look it up!

Pembrokeshire. We are on our second power station, thats without the oil and LNG terminals that are located here - and only last week a big Solar farm went on grid, so its more likely that without areas like this YOU would have no 'lectrickery, given that we have had much of the infrastructure for health and administration centralised a couple of counties away.,good communications is vital.

We already pay plenty for broadband due the stupid pricing structure designed to "lever" ISP's onto WBC - except it isn't available ANYWHERE in this county. the WBC dates disappeared at the point where they started rolling out FTTx to the pampered city areas, so given the disparity in pricing when viewed in terms of both performance and exchange investment etc we are probably subsidising you, because we are seeing no return here for the higher bandwidth pricing that goes with IP Stream/IPSC services, I understand that there are differences in the base service charges too between WBC and "older" services.

Oh, and of those leaping up and down about long lines.. ADSL has a finite limit.. it doesn't work on really long lines so the problem is no more pronounced here than in some urban areas, in fact given the density around town based exchanges we are probably below average for long lines - and many small towns are the same. 10k lines here, hardly a shed on a village green. Im the "wrong" end of town for a reallt short line but still just under 3km physical line length.

[Anonymous Coward]

shut up

Oh do shut up you pleb. why should anybody have to move to get faster broadband?

[PyLETS]

Cost of rural broadband pretty cheap

compared to the benefits. The amount of this pot is peanuts and should go to exchange areas with the worst speeds where providing an acceptable service will always have to be at a loss, because there are not enough people living there. The costs if you don't are kids and people fully out of touch, unemployable and who will need much greater state subsidies as a consequence. It's cheaper in the long run for taxpayers like myself who live in well provided big cities (Coventry in my case) to pay a few pennies extra to keep rural folk living in not-spots from getting too isolated.

[Anonymous Coward]

can sheep actually blog ?

or can they just chewed cud ...

[G R Goslin]

@ Can sheep actually blog?

I think you'll find that only cows, et al 'chew the cud'. With sheep it's straight through, and back to nature

[Anonymous Coward]

@blehhh or whatever

So it's ok for you to tell us to move somewhere with more noise and pollution, just like it's ok for you to flood our valleys in order to provide water to be pumped to places like Birmingham? Why should we subsidise places with not enough water? Move somewhere closer to the river if you want to drink. No, thought not. Cock.

[Danny Roberts 1]

RE: @blehhh or whatever @AC

Absolutely agree with AC above, some things are more expensive in the country and some are more expensive in the cities, it should even out. Otherwise, why should I pay for your traffic lights, I can travel the 15 miles to work without seeing or needing any! :-)

Minor quibble, there are no pumps required to get the water from Mid-Wales to Brum because of some very clever engineering: http://www.elanvalley.org.uk/dams-reservoirs/history-of-the-dams/

[gbru2606]

BT not making enough money

Are the people being subsidised here not BT?

I'm not sure why taxpayers are needed to help BT bring it's technology up to international standards. Will the government bill BT to use it and open this new high speed network up to all ISPs so we can start to move away from those ridiculous BT 'line rental' charges for telephony? Or have I missed the point of this process?