Faster broadband coming to another 220,000 homes and businesses in Yorkshire and the Humber

Nearly 220.000 more homes and businesses across Yorkshire and the Humber will have access to faster broadband by the Spring of next year, BT announced today.

A further 31 communities in the region are included in the latest roll-out plans for BT’s pioneering 21st Century Network (21CN). They include Goole, Wombwell, Chapeltown and Stocksbridge.

Within less than a year lines serving up to 76 per cent of premises in the region – more than 1.4 million households and businesses – will have been upgraded.

The BT investment makes broadband speeds of up to 20 megabits per second (Mbps) available – more than double the maximum speeds previously available to the majority of UK homes and businesses. The faster speeds are delivered over copper lines.

Nearly 200 UK exchanges are included in the phase of the programme announced today. By the Spring of next year about 18 million UK homes and businesses will have been upgraded. The new services are available on an open, wholesale basis to all companies providing broadband.

John Anderson, BT’s regional director for Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “This latest major investment in next generation broadband represents a huge BT vote of confidence in the future of Yorkshire and the Humber. It will help ensure that businesses and households in the region are in a strong position to thrive. Faster broadband can help businesses become more competitive and greatly improve the on-line services available to households.”

Additionally, BT is rolling-out super-fast fibre-based broadband in the UK, initially offering download speeds of up to 40 Mbps - with even faster speeds being possible if the fibre goes direct to the home or business.

And today BT called for more partnership-working to deliver fibre-based broadband in locations where it is not economically viable to include them in current roll-out plans.

John Anderson said: “We would like to work with partners to find ways of providing fibre-based broadband for those areas where the economics are more challenging.

“There are already a number of examples of this in the UK. Some are major multi million pounds projects, such as the partnership in Northern Ireland where BT has pledged to invest about £30 million, whilst others are much more local, such as the village project in Kent where £13,000 of public sector funding helped unlock BT investment of £62,000.”

The full list of exchanges included in this latest phase of the 21CN roll-out programme are:

SCARTHO

ARMTHORPE

ATTERCLIFFE

BALBY

CHAPELTOWN

CLEETHORPES

CONISBROUGH

DUDLEY HILL

GOLDTHORPE

GOOLE

HAWORTH

HAXBY

HONLEY

HUMBERSTON

IDLE

ILKLEY

ILLINGWORTH

KIRKBURTON

ROSSINGTON

ROYSTON

SKELMANTHORPE

SLAITHWAITE

SOWERBY BRIDGE

STARBECK

STEETON

STOCKSBRIDGE

THORNE

UNDERCLIFFE

WETHERBY

WOMBWELL

WOODSEATS