Speed of internet connectivity is now recognised as a measure of a country's development and capability. The Government's RGC scheme acknowledges that.
THE UK Government is committed to a vision of a country connected by superfast broadband which will improve the lives of citizens at work and play and supercharge the efficiency of businesses everywhere.
The Gigabit Voucher scheme is its way of accomplishing that goal as quickly as possible in the short-term.
It is carrot and stick – the carrot being the opportunity to get your broadband connection vastly improved at no cost to yourself; the stick, that the work needs to be done before the time-limited offer expires.
The scheme is a form of Government funding which enables the infrastructure to be built which will connect rural communities with capacity of up to a Gigabit of data per second wherever possible.
That represents a breathtaking improvement on the current level of service, which in most cases in the UK is under 30Mpbs. Rymote installs gigabit-capable infrastructure which delivers up to 900Mbps.
We’re paid to do so by vouchers issued by the Government.
So the process is that people and businesses apply to have the broadband in their community upgraded and if the application is successful, the Government pays expert contractors like Rymote to install.
The vouchers provide up to £1,500 per household and £3,500 for small and medium-sized businesses to support the cost of installing new gigabit connections as the Government mobilises private contractors to do the work for them.
Successfully applying to be part of the voucher scheme means that a company, Rymote in our case, will effectively be paid to install your new superfast online connections at no cost to those involved in the scheme.
The offer is time-limited though and the window is now less than two years from closing, so anyone interested needs to wake up to the offer fast, and take advantage.
Rymote helps those interested along every step of the journey from application to install to admin.
You can read more about the scheme, in the Government’s own words, here or pick up all the basics from the panels below.
One gigabit equals 1,000 megabits (Mpbs) – a huge leap forward in connection capability, given that most of the country’s users are currently below 30 megabits. Gigabit-capable broadband also supports symmetrical connections – meaning your upload and download speeds can be the same. This is significant because recently, people have wanted to use uploads, (online shopping, for example), as much as downloads.
It is the Government’s way of helping you massively upgrade your broadband connections by funding a registered installer to supply it. It targets remote and rural areas which have traditionally struggled to access broadband connections. The Government has set millions of pounds aside to implement this scheme but has time-limited the scheme to less than two years - which means rural communities have to use it or lose it.
Homes and businesses with broadband speeds of less than 100Mbps can use vouchers to support the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections as part of a group scheme. Group projects are when two or more residents and/or SMEs get together to combine their vouchers towards the shared cost of installation. Rymote can help to drive forward this process on your behalf.
Check for availability of our services in your area
Businesses or residents that are eligible for gigabit vouchers can access the scheme through a supplier in six simples steps:
The one question we are most frequently asked in terms of how the vouchers work is from households unsure of how to recruit others to join the scheme. Don’t worry – we’ll help you with that. Once we know there’s an interest in a community we, (often, literally) do the legwork to get the scheme on the move.
It’s the new you. Same as the old you. Just many times faster!
Out goes the ‘new-tech’ of the past – copper phone cables that limit your broadband – and in come full-fibre cables to speed up your service.
With Covid-19 speeding up the prospect of working from home as a viable work lifestyle, full-fibre broadband will make that aspiration realistic and productive.
Capable of delivering up to a Gigabit of data per second, the new functionality will be able to deliver a service many times faster than currently existing services