UK firm helps secure rural broadband access

A UK organisation is to be involved in bringing broadband to rural areas as part of a major European project.

The UK company NYnet, which successfully oversaw the introduction of high-speed broadband access to North Yorksire, has now been invited to participate in a large-scale European project to improve broadband internet access across the region. The project, named B3 – Regions for Better Broadband Connection, aims to help the 30% of rural homes and businesses that do not currently have access to broadband.

NYnet was set up by North Yorkshire County Council with the aim of providing high-speed broadband access to local businesses to ensure they had adequate resources to compete with their urban counterparts. The network offers local businesses high-speed broadband of between 1Mbps and 1Gbps. The company is also working with local communities to see if the technology could be extended to homes in the region.

“There are around 30 communities in North Yorkshire that can’t get DSL at all because they are too far away from BT’s exchanges,” said Clive Downing, business development manager for NYnet.

According to the European Union’s broadband performance index around 70% of rural areas can access broadband. B3 aims to provide the remaining 30% with the same service. The scheme consists of 17 projects across rural areas of Europe, including Italy, Spain and Poland.

Mr Downing added: “We were selected to take part because we actually have a business up and running. We have found a business model that works whereas some public sector schemes work only until the grant runs out.”

Currently 36% of all EU households have access to broadband. Under European law the EU is required to make broadband access available to all Europeans when this figure reaches 50%.

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