Next phase of £70m internet revolution under way

THOUSANDS of homes and businesses will benefit in the next phase of an internet revolution across rural Yorkshire which directors stressed is back on track after the pioneering project was blighted by bureaucracy.

More than 24,000 homes and businesses in 34 communities are to be included in the next stage of the multi-million pound programme, dubbed Superfast North Yorkshire. The latest communities to benefit include Pately Bridge, Sleights, Rufforth and Ripon which will be upgraded by the end of the summer.

There will also be a substantial investment in making fibre broadband more widely available in areas which already have the high-speed technology such as York, Malton, and Dringhouses.

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The announcement has been welcomed by the MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, Timothy Kirkhope, who claimed progress is being made in “tough economic times” to help attract new enterprise and support existing businesses through vastly improved internet connections.

The NYnet initiative was unveiled more than five years ago when it was heralded as important as the arrival of the railways to ensuring North Yorkshire’s economy can compete in the modern technological age.

A £70m investment is being planned in high-quality internet services after BT was awarded the contract in July last year, and the project is due to be completed by the end of 2014.

But NYnet’s chief executive, John Moore, admitted last month the complexity of the scheme and bureaucratic red tape meant it has taken more than a year longer to deliver than had initially been hoped.

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Mr Moore told the Yorkshire Post yesterday the project is progressing now funding has been secured and the roll-out is underway, and added: “We remain on schedule to bring the benefits of faster broadband speeds to thousands of homes and businesses.”

About 365,000 properties – 90 per cent of the total in North Yorkshire – are due to benefit from speeds of at least 25Mbps when the project is completed.

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