West Yorkshire Confirm Next Areas to Benefit from Fibre Broadband

The Superfast West Yorkshire project in England has confirmed that the new Superfast Extension Programme (SEP) contract with BT will result in even more premises being reached with “high-speed fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) than originally planned and the first areas have also been named.

The first contract officially completed in August last year (here), which ensured that 97% of local premises could get access to the new network (67,500 additional premises have now been reached, which rises to 850,000 if you include BT’s separate commercial roll-out). Oddly a desire for more publicity seems to have resulted in this being re-announced a second time today, but we’ll skip that part and focus on what’s new.

Originally the second contract – backed by £6.89m from BDUK and £6.1m from BT – promised to benefit a further 28,000 premises and achieve 98% coverage of “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) by the end of 2018. But we understand that a mix of some additional funds and revised figures have since pushed this target to 33,000.

Roger Marsh, Chair of the Leeds City Region LEP, said:

“Superfast broadband is no longer a nice to have – it’s a must have for businesses looking to perform their day to day activity and accelerate growth into new and existing markets. That is why the rollout of the digital infrastructure is so crucial if we are to support our businesses grow further and faster.

I am delighted this second phase of the project will mean that by 2018, we will have enabled 100,000 premises across West Yorkshire and York to have access to superfast broadband speeds, including some business parks and industrial centres that urgently need faster broadband speeds.”

Work on the second roll-out contract has already begun and some of the first areas to benefit over the coming months include Kirkburton, Honley, Flockton and Meltham.