Contract awarded to BT plc for superfast broadband phase three in North Yorkshire

BT plc has been awarded the contract for phase three of North Yorkshire County Council’s Superfast North Yorkshire (SFNY) project, meaning more than 14,000 more premises can look forward to better broadband.

In partnership with BDUK, the Government’s broadband delivery programme and the EU, the council is to be the principal funder of the £20.5m phase three, with an initial outlay of £12m to secure 94% superfast broadband coverage of premises in North Yorkshire.

The contract was awarded to BT after a competitive procurement process. The majority of the premises will benefit from having fibre optic cables connected directly them, with speeds of up to 330 megabits per second (Mbps).

When Superfast North Yorkshire was first formed in 2010, nearly 50,000 business and residential premises received less than 2Mbps - and the average broadband speed of the 300,000 premises in North Yorkshire was under 4Mbps.

The reason for such an inadequate service was the size and sparseness of the region. This meant that a commercial return for telecoms operators in many parts was more difficult to achieve than in other areas of the country.

This was the worst provision of broadband for any county in England and, for the same reasons, commercial broadband providers were unlikely to offer their services to more than 42% of business and residential premises.

Councillor Don Mackenzie, the County Council’s executive member for Broadband, said: “The outcome of the phase three contract procurement is remarkable and puts the quality of broadband provision to some of our most remote communities on to a new, much higher level.

“It is very good news indeed for those residents who have been waiting patiently for SFNY to get to them and their patience is likely to be rewarded with some of the best broadband quality in the country.”

Councillor Carl Les, the County Council leader, added: “Phase three of SFNY’s broadband expansion programme represents a fantastic boost to the economy of the county and will give many more small rural firms the ability to compete and to grow their businesses.

“The provision of high quality broadband has been a major priority for the county council to address the fact that commercial providers would never have delivered it without our intervention. It has been a major multi-million pound investment by the county council to reach as near to 100% of our residents as possible.’’

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