The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has claimed an £11.8 million economic benefit from the first year of its investment in its Local Full Fibre Network programme.
This comes as a first stage in its returns from its £23.8 million network programme, which is providing for up to 2,700 km of fibre optic infrastructure connecting more than 1,500 public sector sites across the region.
The benefit figure has been generated using the Greater Manchester Forecasting Model, which estimates gross valued added and the numbers of employees per sector.
GMCA said the programme, on which it is working with Virgin Media Business, hit disruptions in the early stages of the pandemic lockdown, but has now exceeded its local employment targets with 75% of the workforce being based in Greater Manchester.
The network will underpin a range of digital transformation and smart city projects.
Future proof
Councillor Sean Fielding, GMCA lead for employment, skills and digital, said: “This programme will future proof our connectivity for the next 30 years and supports the work we are doing in Greater Manchester to make public services more efficient and sets a standard to better ways of doing.”
Virgin Media Business is also investing in Greater Manchester’s digital infrastructure through its network expansion and upgrade programmes, with its network now covering more than 860,000 premises.
Image from iStock, Blackred
