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Project Gigabit

The UK Gigabit Programme or ‘Project Gigabit’ is a £5 billion government infrastructure project to deliver future-proofed gigabit-capable broadband connections across the UK. Gigabit capable connections offer download speeds of at least 1 gigabit-per-second (1 Gbps) or 1000 megabits per second (Mbps) and are usually delivered through full-fibre connections (called fibre-to-the-premises).

Increasingly, these faster and higher capacity connections will be required to ensure that Kent’s digital infrastructure is able to meet future demand.

Building Digital UK (BDUK) are responsible for the delivery of the Project Gigabit Programme, including leading and procuring the Kent and Medway delivery contracts.

Project Gigabit Targets

The national targets and objectives for the Project Gigabit Programme are:

  • 85% of UK premises to have gigabit coverage by the end of 2025 with the aim of achieving ‘near universal coverage as soon as possible’ but before the end of the decade
  • commercial investment (upgrades funded by telecoms providers) to provide gigabit capable connections to 80% of homes and businesses across the UK
  • the remaining 20% of properties that remain outside the scope of commercial investment to be connected via new government-funded programmes. £5 billion has currently been allocated to fund these connections – and the government’s intention is for properties that cannot currently access a superfast broadband connection to be prioritised wherever possible within the new programme.

Project Gigabit in Kent and Medway

BDUK announced on the 6 February 2024 they have awarded a £112.3 million contract to City Fibre to deliver gigabit-capable connections to parts of Kent and Medway that are not expected to benefit from telecom providers' upgrade programmes.

BDUK will lead this project and will be responsible for working with the supplier to manage the rollout.

At this stage, BDUK has not published any further information about which premises will benefit, or when these connections will be installed. We understand that further details are unlikely to be released until further planning and survey work is undertaken which could take several months. Once this information is available, we understand that it will be published on the supplier’s website.