Following the acceptance of the deal by the County Council on Thursday last, the bidding that commenced on the 20th of October two years ago was put an end to. It was at that time that Cumbria that was selected for a government funding to avail broadband to its non-metropolitan regions.

In the month of June, the councillors had refused to agree to the tenders put forward by Fujitsu and BT stating that both bids did not suit their aspirations of providing high speed broadband connectivity speeds of 25Mbps in the course of another three years to ninety percent of the residential homes and commercial enterprises in Cumbria.

Ever since then, negotiations have been going on between the council and BT to arrive at a decision after careful consideration.

The Cabinet Member, Liz Mallinson who had been placed in charge stated that the Programme code named Connecting Cumbria would provide meaningful advantages for lengthy periods.

She went on to add that this deal would offer the necessary facilities that would assist the venture provide high speed broadband throughout the non-metropolitan as well as the metropolitan regions of Cumbria to both residents and business equally.

The council till then has been able to gather a sum of 23 million pounds by way of grants and this would also consist of the 17.1 million pounds from the Broadband Delivery UK, a government body. She remarked that they also anticipate getting a sum to the tune of 15.4 million pounds of European money and that BT has also promised to invest thirty million pounds.

The decision of the cabinet to provide the contract to BT Global Services could as yet be questioned. The decision has been put up for a ten-day call in term as per the rules of the council and there are still points that need to be finalised before the ministers accept the contract.

It will be November by the time the county council get to know if the contract is compatible with the European laws.