£530m for super-fast broadband

In yesterday's Comprehensive Spending Review, despite the huges cuts elewhere, the government announced that the £530m earmarked for rural broadband will be safeguarded. Super-fast broadband will be trialled in the Highlands, North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Herefordshire. The money is being recycled from the BBC:
- £230m is left over from the Digital Switchover budget;
- and the BBC will contribute a further £150m in each of 2013-14 and 2014-15.

The recently announced project in Cornwall cost £132m - so how far will the money go ?

Previously we analysed the Labout Government £6/year "broadband tax"

Then we suggested that this figure looked close to the amount needed,but probably fell a little short. So on that basis the current amounts won't do the job.

However, there may be other ways forward. The costs for local initiatives tend to be less than BT; the fund might be used only for initial capex rather than full funding; and local community services may generate extra revenues that telcos could not capture.

We wait with interest further details from BDUK