Broadband in South-east Wales

Part of 2. Questions to the Leader of the House and Chief Whip – in the Senedd at 3:07 pm on 18 July 2018.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 3:07, 18 July 2018

Yes, it was a great scheme. It was great to be there, wasn't it, to see the enthusiasm for it? Deputy Presiding Officer, if I could recommend that to all other communities across Wales—it's a scheme that was completely underpinned by the Welsh Government voucher schemes, both Access Broadband Cymru and the ultrafast voucher schemes. The village crowdfunded a part of it so that they could raise the speeds to a gigabit. They're hoping to roll it out to 70 or so users. They're hoping to get a return of around £20,000 a year once it's fully rolled out to invest in community projects across the village and upgrade the entire area.

There's absolutely nothing not to totally love about the scheme. It was completely underpinned as well by my broadband team, who worked, as was acknowledged on the day, tirelessly with them to ensure that all of the hurdles that they encountered were smoothed for them. But, I have to pay tribute to the dedication of the people working on it, who really did work very long hours to bring it to fruition.

It's a scheme we'd like to see replicated, although there are many other models of it. We're happy to support such a scheme right across Wales. As I said earlier, in terms of the future, I'm very disappointed I wasn't able to announce something today. We worked very hard to try to do so, but it's not been possible. We hope to be able to do it in the very near future.