Osborne announces 10 'super-connected cities'

The chancellor has pledged an additional £100m fund to help create 10 “super-connected” cities across the UK, which will have broadband speeds of 80 to 100 megabits a second.

London, Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh will be among the 10, with the remaining six to be decided through a competition. They will be announced in the 2012 Budget.
George Osborne said broadband was among the 500 infrastructure projects that the government will pursue in the next 10 years. “It means creating new superfast digital networks for companies across our country. These do not exist today. See what countries like China or Brazil are building, and you’ll also see why we risk falling behind the rest of the world,” Osborne said. “Our great cities are at the heart of our regional economies. And we will help bring world-leading, superfast broadband and WiFi connections to 10 of them – including the capitals of all four nations.” It is understood the money will go towards filling in so-called ‘not-spots’, or areas of cities that have poor broadband or WiFi coverage. The spending was part of a plan by the chancellor to bring superfast broadband to 90 per cent of homes and extending mobile coverage to 99 per cent of families.