Government of Britain shortlists 14 cities for £100m ‘super-connected’ fund

The government has shortlisted a further 10 cities to join the UK's four capitals in benefiting from 100Mbit/s of broadband access – the aim is to make these cities ‘super-connected'.

The cities will be provided with £100m in funding in total. The additional 10 cities comprise Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham, Manchester and Sheffield. These are in addition to London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

The cities were chosen as a result of their size and significant economies to be able to use super-connected status to drive growth, attract new business to the area and transform the way services are provided and accessed.

BT and Virgin will strengthen their networks in the successful cities to deliver broadband speeds of between 80–100Mbit/s.

In his autumn statement, chancellor George Osborne announced that £100m would be made available.
The secretary of state for culture, olympics, media and sport, Jeremy Hunt, said: "This funding will help the cities attract new jobs and investment and make the UK a place where digital businesses look to come."

As part of their proposal to the urban broadband fund, the cities will have to bid for a share of the £100m and detail how they will use it.

Proposals will also need to include plans for high-speed mobile connectivity throughout the city and bidding cities will be expected to contribute by providing additional investment.The four capitals will also need to outline their plans.

Proposals have to be submitted by 13 February 2012 and the successful cities will be announced in the budget in March.