The funding, from Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), is to be matched by local public and private finance, and it forms part of the £8.4 million that the Government set aside for the region, including Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight.
The BDUK funding is part of government plans to ensure that everyone in the country will have access to broadband. Together with the planned commercial investment, the funding will bring enhanced speeds of at least 24Mbps (Megabits per second) to at least 90 per cent of homes and businesses in the UK and provide universal access to standard broadband with a speed of at least 2Mbps.
Currently around 50,000 households and nearly 7,000 Hampshire businesses are in broadband 'not spots', with very slow broadband speeds of 2Mbps or often even less. Everyone should see improvements over the time of the project, if they are below the minimum levels.
Winchester & Chandler's Ford MP Steve Brine said:"This news is warmly welcomed, not only by me but I am sure the many people across the district who have been hugely frustrated by their broadband speed.
"As a former small business-owner and also a local resident, I have long thought that increasing our broadband speed is a vital tool for securing growth, and have campaigned as such since before I was the MP."
The overall programme will last for around three years, and is due to be completed by the end of 2015.
More information...
Find out more, and register your interest at www.hants.gov.uk/broadband-signup.