A £55 million project to help provide state-of-the-art digital connectivity across the Swansea Bay City Region is starting to make strides, leaders were told. It is one of nine city deal projects for the area - and was described as a "golden thread" running through them all at a meeting of the Swansea Bay City Region joint committee.
The digital infrastructure programme, as the project is known, has three key objectives: widespread coverage of fibre broadband in urban and growth areas, expanding connectivity in poorly-served rural areas, and deploying as much 5G wireless technology as possible.
Although this may sound technical, the premise is that good digital connectivity helps a region gain a competitive advantage, stimulating innovation and driving economic growth. And the Swansea Bay City Region, according to a report before the joint committee, has suffered from a lack of commercial investment in this regard. The region covers Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot and Pembrokeshire.
