Cumbria is currently part of a Central Government pilot called Connecting Cumbria which will see the County have 93% of its are covered by Broadband and Superfast Broadband for homes and businesses by 2015. There are also plans developing to extend this coverage to the remaining 7% not covered by the initial scheme.
Connecting Cumbria is a collaboration between Cumbria County Council and BT, that will boost the local economy by creating and protecting jobs for years to come. The county’s enterprise zones are a key priority as superfast broadband will help local businesses to become more competitive. The project will also be of significant benefit to those Cumbrian premises which currently receive speeds of less than 2Mbps. Everyone within Cumbria can benefit from this project as it will help to uplift Cumbria's economy over coming years. The project is being funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), Cumbria County Council and BT.
Combined with the Connecting Cumbria project is a free Business Support Programme for businesses with up to 250 employees. The Business Support Programme is about helping businesses to use superfast broadband to develop, grow or improve the effectiveness of businesses. Supporting the scheme are a series of workshops and master classes. In addition, businesses get access to a constantly updated bank of online resources and which culminates in recommendations and an action plan to take businesses forward.