back to article UK.gov dumps another £40m into unpopular SME broadband scheme

Seemingly flush with cash, the government is pouring an extra £40m into its SME broadband voucher scheme, despite the pitiful take up of the existing £100m initiative to date. Plans to extend the scheme until March 2016, and to more cities, were outlined in the Treasury's 2014 National Infrastructure plan. "Vouchers will be …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    The main reason?

    I doubt anyone knows it's there!

    1. Warm Braw

      Re: The main reason?

      In each area where it's available local delivery "partners" have been appointed by competitive tender to publicise the scheme and get the message out. The contract includes fairly aggressive targets for awareness and conversion and money is clawed back if they're not met.

      I know at least one tendering organisation that's extremely pleased to have lost the bid.

      The trouble is that it's not a compelling offering - basically upgrades (like 4G mobile and FTTC) that were going to happen anyway. And there's a vanishingly small number of people who by now have no broadband connection that might still conceivably have a use for one.

      And in order to get your voucher you have to "engage" with the process - probably have a visit by an assessor, fill in forms and comply with the monitoring that allows the local delivery partner to get paid. And that voucher is essentially for one-off costs (installation and kit) which for most SME products are pretty much noise compared with the annual service cost.

  2. Longrod_von_Hugendong

    As a SME...

    Never heard of it... that is problem, and why its not been used.

    Mind you, the government is good at saying we offered money - but no one used it, so we keep it. Maybe raise some tax as well.

    1. GrumpyOldMan

      Re: As a SME...

      Nope. Me neither. Until now that is.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not available in my City

    I found the site by accident when looking for broadband providers.

    Not available in Sheffield where I have pitiful 3rd world internet and a lease line will be a contract with the devil with my soul as payment.

    I mailed them asking why, no response, probably why nobody got anything from this.

  4. joewilliamsebs

    Cities

    "The reason for sluggish uptake is thought to be poor connectivity, coupled with expensive high-speed leased lines."

    No, the reason is that it's only available in *SELECTED* *CITIES*. You know, those big places with lots of buildings and decent internet.

    I have plenty of clients who would have taken up the voucher, if it was available EVERYWHERE.

    Oh, and one client who wanted to upgrade from 2Mb ADSL to 8Mb EFM, was actually in a qualifying area, but couldn't use the voucher because the "new" connection had to be over 20Mb.

    1. llodge

      Re: Cities

      I found out about the scheme, and would possibly have applied except it is only available where there is already a good service - nowhere outside a major city at all.

      We would desperately like better broadband - have to make do with 5 x adsl connections to reach the dizzy heights of a 12mb connection and this was only achieved having PAID Openreach EXTRA for an engineer with a REIN meter.Has anyone else tried to track REIN interference in a large building with thousands of electrical circuits, an extensive wireless network, cob walls, and lots of non owned equipment using an AM radio!!.To be fair we were very pleased with the improvements the engineer made but any suggestion you could DIY in these circumstances is ridiculous (even tried to source one the BT engineers scanners).

      Tried and still use bonding as the best AVAILABLE solution. No EFM available. Our local exchange is fibre enabled and we are connected direct to the exchange by fibre but cannot get this enabled unless we pay in excess of £550.00 for a 10mb leased line connection (apparently this is subject to survey) but this has improved in the last year from over £700.00 pcm.

      Regularly get personally addressed letters offering fibre but surprise, surprise we can't get fibre (stops about a mile away).

      Loads of competition to bill us but still only 1 supplier - Openreach!!!!

  5. psychonaut

    only available in certain areas

    ive got a customer in sunningdale who is about to buy a leased line. he could really do with the grant but he is not eligible because of his postcode.

    how fucking stupid is that?

  6. Frankee Llonnygog

    Make money avaialable

    But count on not having to actually spend it. How? Make the scheme available, but only where it isn't needed.

    Something can be seen to be done, without actually having to actually do something. Result!

  7. Nextweek

    WTF

    Why is London in the list?

    https://www.connectionvouchers.co.uk/cities/

    1. matthewcford

      Re: WTF

      Because in Kings Cross you only get 2MB.

  8. AndyWG

    Unaffordable leased lines

    We got approval for the £3k grant to cover the installation cost only to discover that a 20Mb leased line was going to cost over £550 pcm. At which point we realised that it would be much cheaper to simply add more ADSL lines...

    1. Pondboy

      Re: Unaffordable leased lines

      With a leased line, you're paying for the service level rather than the "speed". DSL based services often suffer performance issues and can go down for days without any comeback on the supplier. Most leased lines have a 99.99% uptime guarantee and if they do go down, the supplier has to start paying compensation so they tend to get fixed quickly. Leased lines use the national Ethernet network too which has much more resilient kit and much lower latency than the broadband network. That said, £550 for 20Mb, presumably on a 100Mb bearer does sound a bit steep. We normally charge around £300 - £400 for 30Mb on 100Mb bearer, but it really does depend on which services are available in your area.

      Did you try EFM or Ethernet over FTTC? Both often work out cheaper, faster to install and still qualify for the Connection Voucher scheme.

  9. matthewcford

    Slow to process applications

    Even when you do manage to find this scheme, it takes them forever to even reply to your application.

    I gave up.

    A better way to improve broadband would be to get BT to actually improve its infrastructure, the cost of a leased line with the voucher is still prohibitive for most SMEs. I'm based next to the Kings Cross exchange, and can't get more than 2MB on a good day.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Slow to process applications

      "I'm based next to the Kings Cross exchange, and can't get more than 2MB on a good day."

      BT don't want to undercut their leased line business - you see the same in any number of city centres.

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