I attended a meeting in London at the start of last week. Nothing unusual about that I know, but I did feel somewhat privileged and humbled as we were told the balcony attached to the room we occupied was where Winston Churchill waved to the crowds on V.E day. The meeting we were there to attend didn’t have quite the same gravitas as that occasion, but for Nottinghamshire there are some very beneficial consequences.
Broadband UK (BDUK) has been operating its ‘Connection Voucher’ scheme now for some time. The scheme allows up to £3,000 to be granted to businesses looking to improve internet access and is administered by the Department for Culture Media and Sport, along with the local authorities. Now they have added Nottingham to the original list of ‘Super Connected Cities’ it means that Nottinghamshire businesses will be eligible to apply for the grant and look to dramatically improve their access to the internet.
The Department for Culture Media and Sport have a substantial pot of money with which to fund the grants, but the individual city schemes are gathering momentum so it won’t last forever! There are a few criteria that have to be met, but for any business that relies on the internet (which businesses don’t?), you can now improve both the speed, quality and resilience of the service you can obtain. The difference between broadband and a direct internet connection is phenomenal and will have a major impact on business performance. The grant is designed to help small businesses and we are one of a number of suppliers that provide quotations that will help you apply for your voucher and obtain the funding.
A variation on the voucher scheme was also presented at the meeting. ‘Group Schemes’ have been established by a number of providers and cater for locations where a number of businesses may reside and suffer from poor internet access. The same grant can be applied for by each individual business in the scheme. These schemes will be of particular interest to business parks or offices where the major networks have so far failed to provide suitable high speed internet access at a reasonable cost.
In a couple of the case studies presented, it had been possible to massively improve speed and halve the cost of internet access. This in turn boosted occupancy rates and drastically improved the appeal of the location to prospective tenants. We have already looked at a number of areas in Nottinghamshire and know that this scheme would be very beneficial to them. Its’ possible to use a variety of technologies, including wireless to help cover distances and reduce some of the upfront costs involved in establishing the network.
We can’t encourage you to take tonight and tomorrow off as Churchill encouraged the crowd in Piccadilly to do on that historic day, but we can at least get you ‘connected’ to do battle in today’s business world.
If you’d like to know more, we’d be delighted to help with either individual connection or group voucher schemes. Please call on 03333 240 04084 or email ask@masoninfotech.co.uk.