Project Gigabit

Project Gigabit is a £5bn government infrastructure project to enable and deliver fast, reliable digital connectivity for the UK. The prime objective of the programme is to deliver gigabit broadband to those areas of the country that are commercially unviable for broadband infrastructure suppliers to build to without public funding.

Previous broadband infrastructure procurements were undertaken by Shropshire Council, but Building Digital UK (BDUK) is now responsible for procurements, contracts and supplier management, not Shropshire Council. BDUK is an executive agency, sponsored by the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology. 

For project Gigabit updates, please visit the Gov.UK website.

The main Project Gigabit initiatives that impact Shropshire are: 

Procurements 

In July 2022 BDUK launched two procurements in Shropshire.  

Lot 25.01 Mid-West Shropshire 

  • 6,089 premises (all in the Shropshire Council area) 
  • Subsidy available £12,030,000 (£1,976 per premise) 
  • In April 2024, this contract was awarded to Voneus.
  • In December 2024, BDUK and Voneus mutually agreed to terminate the contract for Mid-West Shropshire. Voneus did not received any public funding for this contract
  • BDUK is now moving swiftly to put in place alternative plans with other suppliers to connect premises that were due to be connected

Lot 25.02 North Shropshire 

  • 12,277 premises (10,752 in the Shropshire Council area) 
  • Subsidy available £24,042,000 (£1,958 per premise) 
  • In May 2023, this contract was awarded to Freedom Fibre. Please email queries to Freedom Fibre at: careline@freedomfibre.com 
  • In December 2024 the new Freedom Fibre broadband network became available to order for residents in parts of Bomere Heath, Hadnall, Upper Battlefield & West Felton.

Lot 25C East & South Shropshire

  • In January 2024 BDUK signed a framework agreement with Openreach to provide hard-to-reach premises in East & South Shropshire with access to full-fibre broadband
  • An amount of preparatory and planning work is required to reach premises (for example, digging trenches and installing new poles) before a full-fibre broadband connection can be ordered
  • The first premises under this contract are expected to have access to a full-fibre broadband connection by the end of 2025

Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme 

For more information, please take a look at our voucher scheme page.