HAMPSHIRE is set to benefit from an additional £1million of funding from the Government to install superfast broadband.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has awarded Hampshire County Council £1.2m to explore innovative solutions for superfast broadband that could fill the gaps in some of the county’s more remote areas.

The additional funding provides a welcome boost for the county’s commitment to ensure that as many Hampshire homes and businesses as possible have access to superfast broadband.

The local authority was one of eight successful bidders for cash from the Government’s £10m Broadband Innovation Fund to explore ways to take superfast broadband to more remote places by testing a range of innovative hybrid engineering techniques.

Hampshire’s superfast broadband programme is already on track to support the rollout of superfast broadband to at least 95 per cent of the county by 2017, and this extra cash means that coverage could be extended even further.

County council leader Cllr Roy Perry said: “Access to superfast broadband plays an important role in Hampshire’s economic growth and performance.

“This latest announcement will support our continuing efforts to explore new and even more innovative ways in which residents can gain access to superfast broadband in parts of the county that are expensive to reach and have not been considered commercially viable by Internet providers. Ultimately, these projects should help to make superfast services even more widely available.

“It is because of the council’s willingness to invest in the next phase of the superfast broadband programme that at least 95 per cent of properties will be able to access superfast broadband services once the project is complete in 2017.”