John Penrose MP has welcomed new funding to provide Banwell Primary School with a superfast gigabit-capable broadband connection as part of the Government’s commitment to improve internet infrastructure in rural areas.
This is part of a £3m pilot programme which will provide more than 100 rural schools with high-speed broadband connections, ensuring no matter where in the country primary school students live and go to school, they can learn valuable technology skills and access online training and educational learning.
Schools involved in the programme will see their broadband speeds jump from as low as 0.5 Megabits per Second (Mbps) to 100Mbps, and have the capability to be upgraded to 1,000Mbps (1Gbps) in the future.
John said: “The Internet is an increasingly important part of modern life so it’s vital everyone is fully-equipped and ready to take advantage of all the digital job opportunities it will create, no matter where in the country they live.
“There’s an added bonus too: once superfast broadband is installed for a school, it’s a lot easier to connect up surrounding homes and businesses too.”
Notes:
The Conservative Government delivered on their Manifesto commitment to provide superfast broadband at 24 Mbps or faster to 95 per cent of premises. (DCMS, 29 January 2018, link).
The Conservative Government will deliver a broadband Universal Service Obligation to ensure the whole UK can access fast and reliable broadband by 2020. The success of the Government’s superfast broadband rollout programme will help it reach the final 5 per cent(DCMS, 9 September 2017, link).