Christmas comes early in Boroughbridge as superfast fibre broadband arrives
Superfast North Yorkshire today held a Christmas party in Boroughbridge to celebrate the news that superfast fibre broadband has arrived in town.
Joined by Andrew Jones, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, members of the Superfast North Yorkshire team met local residents and businesses to explain the technology behind the roll out and the benefits it will bring.
As well as discovering how the technology works and why it’s essential for the future success and prosperity of the town, a familiar Christmas face, carol singers and refreshments were on hand to give the day a festive feel.
High-speed fibre broadband is now available to more than 1,667 homes and businesses in Boroughbridge – around 55 per cent - with further upgrades scheduled in the coming weeks. More than 90 per cent of the market town, some 3,000 premises, will have access to high speed fibre broadband by the end of 2014.
Superfast North Yorkshire, a partnership led by North Yorkshire County Council and BT, builds on BT’s own commercial roll-out of fibre broadband in the county so that 90 per cent of North Yorkshire’s homes and businesses will have access to fibre broadband by the end of 2014 1.
Superfast North Yorkshire has already enabled access to fibre broadband to more than 80,000 homes and businesses across the county in addition to around 164,000 premises enabled as part of BT’s commercial roll-out. More than 60 per cent of the county can access superfast speeds of 24Mbps and above.
Andrew Jones, MP, said: “This is a fantastic Christmas present for Boroughbridge. Thousands of local people and businesses will be able to join the information highway’s fast lane. For Boroughbridge it means access to the same kind of connectivity previously only available in larger towns and cities. This technology can transform many aspects of our lives and Boroughbridge residents and businesses will feel a real benefit from these changes.”
Research carried out for BT by Regeneris Consulting suggests that in the next 15 years super-fast broadband could give the economy of a typical town a £143 million boost and create 225 new jobs, 140 new start-up businesses and 1,000 more homeworkers 2 .
Councillor Carl Les, chairman of Superfast North Yorkshire, said: “Our lives are more connected than ever before. More and more appliances and gadgets – phones, broadband enabled TVs, tablets, games consoles – many of which will be bought as presents this Christmas – work best with a high-speed internet connection. But as we increasingly do more online – sharing photos with friends, streaming HD movies, video calls with family and friends, traditional broadband connections find it harder to cope. This is an ideal time to make the switch to superfast broadband.”
The majority of premises in North Yorkshire will be getting access to some of the best broadband speeds in the country via Superfast North Yorkshire and BT’s associated commercial roll-out.
The high speed service will boost the competitiveness of local firms and offer new ways of flexible working, entertainment and learning opportunities for local residents. Fibre broadband gives users the ability to run multiple bandwidth-hungry applications at the same time such as sending and receiving large amounts of data much more quickly and efficiently.
At home, fibre broadband enables a family to simultaneously download a movie, watch a TV replay service, surf the internet and play games online all at the same time. A whole album can be downloaded in less than 30 seconds and a feature length HD movie in less than 10 minutes, whilst high-resolution photos can be uploaded to Facebook in seconds.
Councillor Margaret Atkinson, Harrogate District Council lead for Rural Affairs, said: “Boroughbridge has become the latest community in Harrogate District to be enabled with superfast broadband. I have no doubt that the local community will embrace the new connectivity and that it will have a really positive effect on the town and its residents and businesses.”
BT was chosen as the private sector partner in the project following an extensive selection process by the county council. The company is contributing £10 million towards fibre deployment in “non-commercial” areas whilst the county council is using its £17.8 million share of BDUK funds and a further £8.6 million coming from the European Regional Development Fund 3 .
To help businesses in North Yorkshire take advantage of the faster broadband speeds a support service has been put in place to provide free services such as training workshops, skills master classes and business development events. This will demonstrate how faster broadband connections can help to develop business and increase profits by maximising efficiency and productivity. For more information call 0845 0020021 or email: enquiries@sfny.co.uk.
For further information on the Superfast North Yorkshire programme visitwww.superfastnorthyorkshire.com
Notes to editors:
1 The majority of North Yorkshire homes & businesses will have access to speeds of at least 25Mbps by the end of 2014. Openreach, BT’s local network business, is primarily deploying fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology, where the fibre runs from the exchange to a local roadside cabinet. FTTC offers download speeds of up to 80 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps and could deliver even faster speeds in the future.
ISPs may use different speeds in their advertising. Individual line speeds will depend on network infrastructure and the service chosen by the ISP
2 Research taken from Social Study 2012 – The Economic Impact of BT across the UK by Regeneris Consulting – see www.btsocialstudy.co.uk for more information.
3 The Superfast North Yorkshire project is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund Programme 2007 to 2013. The Department for Communities and Local Government is the managing authority for the European Regional Development Fund Programme, which is one of the funds established by the European Commission to help local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support local businesses and create jobs. For more information visit www.communities.gov.uk/erdf
About Superfast North Yorkshire
Superfast North Yorkshire was created in July 2012 following the signing of the contract between North Yorkshire County Council and BT, which will see a total fibre broadband investment in the county expected to reach around £70 million.
North Yorkshire is the first county in the UK successfully to deploy Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) funds, which will be used to extend the roll-out of faster broadband across the county. The project will reach those areas outside of any commercial roll-out using a partnership approach to ensure all communities have access to the fastest possible broadband speeds.
The Superfast North Yorkshire project is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund Programme 2007 to 2013. The Department for Communities and Local Government is the managing authority for the European Regional Development Fund Programme, which is one of the funds established by the European Commission to help local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support local businesses and create jobs. For more information visit www.communities.gov.uk/erdf
