Foster welcomes funding to develop Londonderry as a super-connected city

Reacting to Jeremy Hunt’s announcement that Londonderry is one of twenty-seven cities to have been short-listed as eligible to bid for support from a £50million pot, Arlene Foster said: “I am delighted to see that Northern Ireland is continuing to benefit from national telecommunications infrastructure programmes, and at a time when the development of our economic infrastructure is critical to rebuilding the economy.

“This announcement is particularly timely as Londonderry is on the cusp of its UK City of Culture year. The challenge now is to ensure that the City secures an allocation that will allow it to build on the infrastructure investments that have already been completed, and to develop a plan that will demonstrate how super-connectivity will be used across Londonderry as a path to digital infrastructure-led growth.”

The Minister also sought to address any concern that the initiative comes at the expense of rural broadband provision.

Arlene Foster said: “This is new money that is being made available by the UK Government. My Department is continuing to focus on the delivery of high quality broadband services for all of Northern Ireland. We have already secured significant funding to address rural broadband issues through the Northern Ireland Executive’s published Budget priorities and Broadband Delivery UK, the national rural broadband initiative.

“We are also continuing to work with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport on a proposal to source additional funding to deliver an innovative mobile solution for Northern Ireland. The latest announcement will not impact on the speed or scale of our rural broadband commitments.”