Crisis….what crisis?

I wrote recently about the ‘Connecting Europe Facility’, previously earmarked for the subsidy of new broadband networks, and the news that this source of European largesse had been more or less wiped out by enforced EU budget cuts,  I was rather surprised to see that what I saw as a passing reference was cited in so many subsequent articles – as if the Brussels fund was the only and last source of broadband investment.  I have since noticed that, on the contrary, there is still plenty of money being ploughed into the networks of tomorrow.  The EU itself has reportedly set aside €700 million in grants over the next five years to develop so-called ‘5G’ wireless technologies; perhaps more surprisingly, the (relatively) new French government appears to have pledged £17bn for deployment of a national superfast broadband network.

These developments may bring little cheer to aspiring communities in the UK’s ‘final third’ but the good news has to be that, whatever its form, the importance of new investment in Europe’s digital infrastructure has at least been fully recognised.