DCMS: First Government rural broadband project goes live |

Thursday 13th December 2012 | 12:52

DCMS: First Government rural broadband project goes live

Department for Culture, and Sport press release

The Government's rural superfast broadband programme reached a major milestone today as Ainderby Steeple in North Yorkshire became the first community to be connected, with download speeds of up to 80mbps.

Communications Minister Ed Vaizey, who unveiled the cabinet that will provide superfast access to 90 rural homes, said:

"Ainderby Steeple is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. Unfortunately, until now, the people of this magnificent rural community would have struggled to find out more about their history online because of frustratingly slow download speeds. Thanks to our £530m investment in rural broadband, that is all about to change and the people of Ainderby Steeple can enjoy download speeds of a stunning 80mbps.

"Ainderby Steeple is just the beginning. Over the coming months we will approve the procurement of more than 40 rural broadband programmes, meaning that 90 per cent of UK homes and businesses will be connected at superfast speeds and the remainder at speeds of at least 2mbps."

The Government is investing £530 million to help take superfast broadband to rural areas and a further £150m for ultrafast urban broadband schemes, giving the UK the best superfast broadband in Europe by 2015.

The Ainderby Steeple project is being delivered by Superfast North Yorkshire, a partnership between North Yorkshire County Council and BT. The partnership has been awarded £17.8m for rural broadband projects across North Yorkshire by Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), the Government's broadband delivery unit. BT has invested £10m with a further £8.6 million coming from the European Regional Development Fund.

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