Superfast North Yorkshire shows Julian Sturdy, MP, new fibre network in Rufforth
Around 275 local homes and businesses in the area can now benefit, local people encouraged to get connected
Superfast North Yorkshire today demonstrated the technology behind the roll out of super-fast fibre broadband to Julian Sturdy, MP for York Outer.
The MP visited the first fibre broadband street cabinet to go live in Rufforth to find out for himself how the technology works and why it’s essential for future success and prosperity.
He urged local people to reap the benefits of this major investment in high-speed fibre broadband which is now available to around 275 homes and businesses in Rufforth and further 225 premises in the neighbouring village of Long Marston.
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 .
Superfast North Yorkshire has already enabled access to fibre broadband to more than 16,000 homes and businesses across the county.
Julian Sturdy said at the new green cabinet in Rufforth: “Having campaigned to improve access to broadband in rural areas for many years, I am delighted to open the cabinet in Rufforth which will give many of my constituents access to broadband with speeds of up to 25Mbps per second. This is a vast improvement on the previous speeds and will make a significant impact upon the lives of those living in rural communities around York Outer.”
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 .
Councillor Carl Les, chairman of Superfast North Yorkshire, said: “We’re very pleased that Julian Sturdy has been able to come and explore the inner workings of our roll-out of fibre broadband today. Local people may have noticed new BT green street cabinets being installed. This everyday street furniture is where the magic happens.
““Fibre broadband opens up a whole new world to internet users, as more than a million UK households and businesses have already discovered.”
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.
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 .
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 visit www.superfastnorthyorkshire.com
Notes to editors:
Due to the current network topography, and the economics of deployment, it is likely that some premises within enabled areas will not initially be able to access fibre-based broadband.
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
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.
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
