Quickline’s £60m Gigabit Broadband Build in North and West Yorkshire UK Goes Live

Alternative network operator and ISP Quickline has today announced that the first 4,500 premises under their £60m state aid supported gigabit broadband roll-out contract for North and West Yorkshire, including the remote areas surrounding York, have been covered by the new network. The goal is to reach 28,000 premises in hard-to-reach rural areas.

The West Yorkshire and York Area (Lot 8) contract, which was awarded back in February 2024 as part of the government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme (here), has initially covered homes and businesses in the areas of Escrick, Crofton, Elvington, Sutton upon Derwent and Wheldrake.

Project Gigabit aims to help extend 1Gbps (download) capable networks to reach at least 85% of UK premises by 2025 (we’re currently at around 84%), before aiming to achieve “nationwide” coverage (c. 99%) by 2030. Commercial investment will deliver more than 80% of this, which leaves the government’s scheme to focus on tackling the final 20% (mostly rural and some sub-urban areas), where the private sector alone often fails. The project is technology neutral, but Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks are strongly favoured.

Quickline’s Lot 8 contract is also expected to tackle the rural areas surrounding Selby, York, Bradford, Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield, Harrogate, Skipton and Ripon, Keighley, Calder Valley, Stamford Bridge and Pocklington.

Sir Chris Bryant, UK Telecoms Minister, said:

“Thousands of rural households, businesses and students in this region can now enjoy better connectivity without having to battle for bandwidth with neighbours or other family members to stream video and music or download big files crucial for work and education.

The digital divide affecting a region as bursting in opportunities as Yorkshire is unacceptable. Since my appointment, I have made it one of my highest priorities to plug digital gaps, and the government and I have vowed to achieve nationwide gigabit coverage by 2030.

It is fantastic to mark a new step towards this journey and start delivering the connectivity the region deserves to thrive and compete.”

Julian Chalk, Head of Network Engagement and Enablement at Quickline, said:

“We’re proud to be delivering gigabit capable broadband to rural communities in the York area as part of the government’s Project Gigabit programme. Our goal is to make an impact quickly and light up these areas as soon as possible.

Everyone deserves access to reliable broadband and we’re committed to helping our customers to thrive in the digital world.”

Quickline typically deploys gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband networks, although we believe their Project Gigabit contracts mostly focus upon full fibre technologies. Customers of this service currently pay from £14.50 per month for 200Mbps symmetric speeds (£29 after 12 months) on a 24-month term with free installation, which goes up to £24.50 for their top 900Mbps tier (£49 after 12 months).