Kirklees secures superfast speeds for homes and businesses
Kirklees Council has joined the second phase of the Superfast West Yorkshire programme in order to boost broadband speeds across the district.
Around 22,000 further households and businesses in the Kirklees area will be able to benefit from the faster speeds by the end of September 2018 with engineering work set to begin early next year.
Cllr Graham Turner from Kirklees Council said:“We know how much both residents and businesses rely on broadband and faster speeds nowadays, therefore we were very keen to be involved in the second phase of the Superfast West Yorkshire Project.
“It is great to see that so many businesses and residents in Kirklees will be able to benefit from this technology and see a real boost locally to our economy.”
This second phase of themulti-million pound partnership between West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) and BT was signed in June and will make fibre broadband available to tens of thousands more households and businesses across West Yorkshire and York.
Building on the successful work of Superfast West Yorkshire’s first phase and BT’s own commercial roll-out of the high-speed technology, the second phase will reach more than 98 per cent of homes and businesses by the end of 2018.
Cllr David Green, chair of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Investment Committee and Bradford Council leader, said:“Faster, more reliable broadband speeds and the infrastructure to cope with future technologies is very important for the region.
“The extension into the second phase of the project should bring fibre broadband to 98 per cent of homes and businesses in the programme area by the end of 2018, and help realise a number of local benefits for economies across the West Yorkshire and York region.”
Tom Keeney, BT’s regional director for Yorkshire and the Humber, added: “The team behind the Superfast West Yorkshire programme is doing an amazing job bringing faster broadband speeds in reach of thousands of homes and businesses.
“Already in Kirklees, around 110,000 homes and businesses can access fibre broadband on our network and now a further 22,000 will be joining them thanks to this programme.”
The arrival of faster broadband brings many benefits to an area. Fibre broadband at home means everyone in the family can do their own thing online, all at the same time, whether it’s downloading music in minutes or watching catch-up TV; streaming HD movies in a few minutes; or posting photos and videos to social networking sites in seconds.Other benefits include online learning, which will open new doors and expand horizons for thousands of people in West Yorkshire, and better opportunities for people with disabilities or caring responsibilities, who would find it hard to travel to work and may now be able to work effectively from home.
Superfast Broadband also has the potential to significantly improve business performance. It can lead to the development of new ways of working, provide access to new markets, improve customer relationships and operational savings, or give an organisation a unique selling point (USP) that leads to a competitive advantage over others in the market place.
In order to take advantage of the higher speeds now available, residents and businesses should contact their broadband service provider or visit www.get-fibre.co.uk.
