Chamber News: Up to £3,000 available to Norwich based businesses to install faster broadband

Is your current broadband speed slowing down your business? You can now do something about it!

If your business employs less than 250 employees and you are based in the Norwich City Council area, then it is likely that you are eligible for free funding through the government’s Superfast Britain Broadband Connection Vouchers scheme.

Eligible businesses can get a connection voucher of between £100 and £3,000 towards the charge of installing superfast broadband. This is usually enough to cover the costs involved. If your business is based at home, the connection voucher can also be used to get superfast broadband there.

It canfund associated installation costs including infrastructure equipment, construction charges, engineering works and surveys.

What types of broadband are eligible?

• Cable
• Ethernet First Mile (EFM)
• Fibre to the Premise (FttP)
• Fibre to the Cabinet (FttC)
• Fixed Wireless Access (FWA)
• Leased lines
• Microwave
• Satellite

Multiple organisations can jointly apply to the scheme and pool the funding. This can help where a whole office block wants to get superfast broadband,though all organisations must meet theeligibility criteria. The offer is also open to registered charities, social enterprises and sole traders.

The benefits to you business could include:

• Increasing profits by offering better services to more satisfied customers.
• Improving customers’ experience with quicker upload and download speeds and faster file-sharing, especially for large files.
• Reducing software and hardware costs by helping businesses switch to online data storage solutions.
• Enhancing the way businesses communicate and collaborate through online video conference and cloud-based information sharing.

How to apply

You can claim your broadband connection voucher in three simple steps:

1. Check your business is eligible using the scheme’spostcode checker.
2. Get a quote from aregistered supplieron a package tomeet your specific needs.
3. Click on the button below and fill in an application form. We’ll do the rest!

You can also go for an off-the-shelf deal directly throughwww.connectionvouchers.co.uk. Just check your postcode is eligible then click on option one ‘off the shelf deal’.Your chosen supplier will then complete the administration for you.

What’s on offer?

For more detailed information,click here for the connection voucher broadband guide.

What do you have to pay?

• We pay the connection charge up to £3,000, you pay the rest if the cost is higher.
• You pay the VAT of the connection.
• You pay the ongoing monthly subscriptions.