STORY
More than 60,000 rural homes and businesses across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire can now access faster broadband through the Government’s Project Gigabit programme. The latest connections include communities around Barnsley, Huddersfield, Hull, Bradford, York, Boston and Wisbech, where poor connectivity has previously restricted working, studying and access to online services.
Quickline is delivering the network after receiving £127 million through Project Gigabit. The company said its full fibre network now reaches about 260,000 premises across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, while the publicly funded work has also supported more than 130 apprentices and science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities involving more than 1,700 young people.
The Government said Project Gigabit has helped upgrade more than 1.3 million premises across the United Kingdom, with most of the work focused on rural and hard-to-reach areas. Ministers said the programme is intended to extend gigabit-capable connections to locations where commercial investment alone would be unlikely to deliver them quickly.