Gov't could reclaim cash from ISPs' fibre handouts

The government has launched a consultation on how a fund to take superfast broadband to areas of the country likely to be missed by commercial rollouts should be spent, and whether it should seek to claw back grants given to broadband companies that end up making too much money from such areas.

The fund, expected to total £1bn over seven years, is the government's answer to bridging the UK's fibre gap. The looming problem with superfast broadband is that commercial providers are only likely to extend services to around 70 percent of the country, bypassing areas that are less populous or harder to reach, and therefore more difficult to make a profit from.

The £1bn pot, known as the Next Generation Fund, is aimed at helping to push superfast fibre services to at least 90 percent of the UK, so rural, remote and less-populated areas are not forced to go without fibre.

For more on this story, see Fibre broadband handouts could be clawed back if rollouts make too much cash on silicon.com.