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The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) directorate has today published a final evaluation of their publicly funded pre-2021 broadband voucher schemes, including the earlier incarnation of their Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) and the Rural Gigabit Connectivity (RGC) scheme. Overall both were found to have produced various positive impacts.
Just to recap. The GBVS in this report – delivered between November 2017 and May 2020 – was originally more focused upon connecting smaller businesses (SMEs) and helping to stimulate the UK’s full-fibre broadband market. By comparison, the RGC – delivered between May 2019 and March 2021 – adapted a similar approach to the GBVS, albeit aimed at supporting delivery into rural areas only.
The full report into both of these is a bit of a dry read, but it focuses on measuring and assessing the effects of vouchers on improving connectivity, supporting business and local economic growth, delivering social and environmental benefits, and stimulating competition in the broadband market.