UK.gov dangles £10m sweetener over bumpkin broadband hopefuls

The government plans to slip £10m into the pockets of outfits willing to test alternative ways to bring superfast broadband access to those bits of Blighty left untouched by BT's fibre-to-the-cabinet technology rollout. The extra funding was announced ahead of Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's rambunctious Autumn …

[Gordon Pryra]

Im going to be rich!

My teams of USB hauling donkey trains braving the passes of Snowden and scafell pike to bring data connectivilty to the brave souls living in the badlands should tick all the boxes.

Its not like the Govt will know what they have been sold anyway, I could always let the NSA provide a sherpa to tag along to keep the data access in place for the Yanks, which should keep the Govt happy

And when ive got the cash, I can flog the donkeys as beef to the first supermarket chain to turn up.

[rhydian]

Re: Im going to be rich!

Snowden has passes? I thought he was just an IT contractor...

Eryri/Snowdon however does have the advantage of a railway line to the top...

['s water music]

Re: Im going to be rich!

> And when ive got the cash, I can flog the donkeys as beef to the first supermarket chain to turn up.

Surely you could pass them off as horse no? I had that princess Anne in the back of a cab once. 8)

[Aldous]

Re: Im going to be rich!

only if you stick a BT label on it!

[Geoff Campbell]

Re: BT Label

For ten million, I'll stick whatever label you want on it.

GJC

[Anonymous Coward]

New industries?

"Elsewhere in his budget statement, Osborne said that the Treasury would inject £270m into Quantum Technology Centres over the next five years to fund the development of new industries in the likes of ........secure communication."

Secure against whom?

[speedbird007]

Scottish Referendum

"Osborne added during his speech that the government planned to establish a Higgs Centre at Edinburgh University, named in honour of CERN boffin Peter Higgs, of Higgs boson fame. It will support start ups and academics interested in astronomy and particle physics."

Er, is that the independent Scotland, or just a carrot to influence the Scots to remain in the UK?

Inquiring minds just want to know.

[Sandpit]

Starting to envy the folks without access to BT fibre.

How about some cash so that we can have some competition to the clowns that are Openreach. I have suffered the blight of this incompetant monoploy as I have now had three failed attempts for an engineer to connect me over the last month, hence 3 days off work. The next attempt is on Friday the 13th so I am feeling really confident about this. Oh, and I now have no internet at all.

And there is not a damed thing I can do about it as a customer. They are untouchable, with every ISP forced to use them and just as powerless as their customers..

[Roland6]

Re: Starting to envy the folks without access to BT fibre.

Shouldn't envy those in areas that will be untouched by BT's fibre-to-the-cabinet technology rollout. Because until BT have largely finished their rollout we don't really know where the areas are that will benefit from the additional £10m. So this 'sweetener' will effectively be a way of paying BT to include these areas.

[G R Goslin]

If

If the Chancellor is going to "fix the roof while the sun is shining", someone ought to tell him that the Government has sold the hammer and nails, as well as the ladder.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: If

"Relax darling - I promise I'll pull out in time ... yes I know I said that last time but tonight it's different"

[Fink-Nottle]

Driverless cars - a sensible option when a good proportion of the working age population will be too senile to drive to work.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's was a sensible option years ago, seeing as most of the population in Dorset can't drive properly. I've never known a place have so many accidents and road deaths.

[Furbian]

Another 140m was available...

..but it was wasted on Universal Credit instead, and that's just the write off, i.e. total waste to date.