West Yorkshire Name First 14 Areas for BDUK and BT Fibre Broadband

The state aid supported £21.96m Superfast West Yorkshire project in England has today named the first 14 telephone exchange areas that will benefit from an upgrade to BT’s “high-speed fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network, which aims to cover 97% of local premises by the end of Autumn 2015.

Overall around 708,000 premises in the project area can expect to gain access to the new service by the end of the development, although this also includes premises covered by BT’s separate commercial roll-out. Take note that the remaining 3% will also get speeds of at least 2Mbps.

The first exchange areas to benefit under Phase 1 of the effort are listed below and these can expect to be upgraded by the end of June 2014 (the necessary engineering work has already begun).

Phase 1 Upgrades

New Fibre Areas
Barwick-in-Elmet
Hipperholme
Illingworth
Sowerby Bridge
Arthington

Expanded Fibre Coverage in Existing Areas
Halifax
Calder Valley
Brighouse
Hemsworth
Ilkley
Otley
South Elmsall
Royston
Sandal

A business support programme has also been launched to demonstrate the benefits of “high-speed internet” to businesses with targeted support and information to help businesses turn faster broadband speeds into business growth.