The investment made by the UK in superfast broadband is expected to add about £6.3bn per year to the country’s economy as well as create 20,000 jobs by 2024, a new government commissioned UK Broadband Impact Study – Impact Report reveals.
The research carried out jointly by SQW and Cambridge Econometrics noted that the economy would benefit by £20 for every £1 spent by the government in broadband infrastructure through the forecast period.
UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Maria Miller said the report shows that as well as superfast broadband being good for economic growth it will make even more of a positive impact on the citizens, and even allow working more productively and getting online faster.
"Our broadband rollout is one of the best in Europe with almost three quarters of the UK able to access superfast speeds," Miller said.
"This is making a real difference to people in communities across the UK from small businesses able to expand, school children being able to log on to do their homework or people being able to work from home.
"This investment in technology is vital for our future and will help Britain continue to compete in the global race and improve the way we live and work."
Citing short term benefits of about £1.5bn due to work on the network construction, in addition to about 11,000 jobs next year, the report also reveals that investment in broadband would offer household savings of about £45m per year as more people would be able to work from home.
Broadband Impact Report advisor Dr Pantelis Koutroumpis said looking at the evolution of broadband speeds in different geographies, and the on-going network deployments across the UK, this study brings new insights into the impact of improved broadband access on national and local economies.
"Notably, the added capacity particularly affects small and medium businesses across industries, while the intervention helps address a growing digital divide," Koutroumpis said.
"This motivates further research in the future as more empirical data become available – for example, in the relationship between business speed increases and productivity growth."
Recently, Virgin Media confirmed plans to launch ultrafast 152Mb broadband for its 12.5 million UK customers in February 2014, which would be twice as fast as any other available service.
