1. Home
  2. Alternative options
  3. Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme

Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo, which says Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme

About the scheme

 

Get the fastest and most reliable speeds for your business with help from the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme!

 

The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme is a national scheme run by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport to provide future-proof full fibre connections for homes and businesses.

As part of the wider £5bn Project Gigabit programme, the UK Gigabit Broadband Voucher will provide micro grants of up to £1,500 for households and up to £3,500 for each small to medium-sized business (SME) in the hardest to reach rural areas (with current speeds of less than 100Mbps) to support the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections when part of a group scheme.

 

Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme - January 2022 update

Please note: the Gigabit Broadband Voucher scheme is currently paused for Suffolk during the Suffolk Project Gigabit tender process. We will update this page as soon as the scheme is available again for Suffolk.

 

Am I eligible for a Gigabit Broadband Voucher?

 

Home and businesses in rural locations which meet the following criteria can use vouchers to support the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections when part of a group project.

  1. Your house or business must be in a rural area - ‘rural’ is defined using agreed standard measures in the relevant part of the UK. 
  2. Existing broadband speeds are less than 100Mbps.
  3. A gigabit capable network isn’t likely to be built to that area commercially in the near future.
  4. There is no government-funded contract planned or in place to improve the network already.
  5. Your connection must at least double your existing speed if your current speed is less than 50Mbps, or reach at least 100Mbps if your current speed is more than 50Mbps.
  6. You must be part of a group project (two or more premises) - group projects are when two or more residents and/or SMEs get together to combine their vouchers towards the shared cost of installation. Single connections are not eligible for this scheme.

You can check whether your home or business is eligible on the Get a Voucher page.

 

How do the vouchers work?

Businesses or residents that are eligible for gigabit vouchers can access the scheme through a supplier.

The next section shows the step-by-step process that each voucher recipient will go through to activate their voucher.

 

Step-by-step voucher process

 

  1. Check whether you're eligible for a voucher
  2. Find a registered supplier and sign up for a gigabit-capable connection.
  3. Your supplier requests a voucher from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The DCMS checks by email you are happy to go ahead. 
  4. Your supplier gets to work to deliver your new connection.
  5. Connected! Your supplier lets the DCMS know the work is done.
  6. DCMS checks with you by email that the service is live and working.
  7. DCMS sometimes make some further checks before they pay.

This scheme is run by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and so for more information, please visit their Gigabit Broadband Voucher scheme website.

Case Studies

The Gigabit Broadband Voucher scheme website has a number of case studies about the benefits of gigabit-capable connections.

 

DISCLAIMER - the information from this page comes from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) website, and is subject to change, so for the latest updates please visit the DCMS's Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme website.