William Hague hails progress of Superfast North Yorkshire as Richmondshire joins superfast highway
More than 14,000 local homes and businesses can now benefit from fibre broadband
William Hague today hailed the progress of Superfast North Yorkshire as the partnership demonstrated the technology behind its multi million pound roll out of super-fast fibre broadband.
The MP for Richmond joined the Superfast North Yorkshire team at The Station in Richmond, visiting a mobile showcase of the technology to learn more about how it works and to emphasise why faster broadband speeds are 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 in many parts of his constituency, including Richmond, Catterick, Leyburn, and Skeeby.
He said: “Broadband is an essential part of our present and future. It’s vital that we embrace this latest generation of technology in order for our local economy to remain competitive.
“The fact that more than 14,000 homes and businesses in Richmondshire can now order fibre broadband is fantastic, and I look forward to news of further upgrades in the coming months.”
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 .
More than 120,000 home and businesses can already access the fibre network as a direct result of the project with a further 225,000 North Yorkshire premises covered by BT’s own commercial roll-out.
To deliver the Superfast North Yorkshire programme more than 2,300 engineers from Openreach, BT’s local network businesses, will clock up an estimated half a million man hours of work to deploy 623 new fibre cabinets and around 10,000 kilometres of fibre - further than the distance from York to Tokyo.
Councillor Carl Les, chairman of Superfast North Yorkshire, said: “During the industrial revolution the railways played a major role in driving economic growth. Richmond’s own historic station had a huge impact on the town providing accessibility and opportunities for residents and businesses.
“In today’s digitally interconnected world it is fibre broadband that will lead the way in driving growth and opportunities for many communities in Richmondshire.”
Bill Murphy, BT’s managing director for Next Generation Access, added: "Superfast broadband opens the doors to countless business opportunities, boosting the rural areas and supporting thriving local communities.
“Deploying broadband is a substantial challenge but a vital one which will help local businesses to be competitive and ensure they remain in the area. It can also play an important role in attracting even more firms to an area thereby helping to create jobs for local people.”
For local businesses, the fibre network will underpin the introduction of many new services and applications. Big business applications driven by cloud services and data centres will be within the reach of enterprises of all sizes. Computer back up, storage and processing will be faster, and the use of high quality videoconferencing within firms and between them and their customers will become a viable possibility.
Households will be able to run multiple bandwidth-hungry applications at the same time and send and receive large amounts of data much more quickly and efficiently. New fibre services are also set to transform the way consumers use the internet, from the simple sharing of pictures and video to enjoying the growing boom in entertainment services available on-line.
Councillor John Blackie, leader of Richmondshire District Council, said: “The arrival of superfast broadband in many parts of Richmondshire levels the playing field for our residents and businesses, allowing them access to the world from their laptop or desktop, be it to browse, to shop, complete school homework, do business from their workplace, or work better from home. For some deeply rural communities here in the District devoid of any form of modern communication, it will bring the 21st Century into their midst for the very first time.
“I would urge everyone living and working in areas now connected to this new technology to contact the service provider of their choice to arrange an upgrade.”
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
Due to the current network topography, and the economics of deployment, it is likely that some premises within the selected exchange areas will not initially be able to access fibre-based broadband. Alternative solutions for these locations are being investigated.
Notes to Editors:
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
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
Photography illustrating the Superfast North Yorkshire project is available here:
http://imagelibrary.btplc.com/assetbank-btplc/action/browseItems?categoryId=606&categoryTypeId=1
Superfast Britain is a Government investment of £1.08bn in broadband and communication infrastructure across the UK. Run by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, this investment helps businesses to grow, creates jobs and will make Britain more competitive in the global race. The portfolio comprises three linked programmes:
• £780m to extend superfast broadband to 95% of the UK by 2017
• £150m to provide high speed broadband to businesses in 22 cities
• £150m to improve quality and coverage of mobile phone and basic data network services
Administered on behalf of Government by Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), Superfast Britain is transforming Britain by promoting growth, enabling skills and learning, and improving quality of life.
For further information: https://www.gov.uk/broadband-delivery-uk
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
