The Government's 2009 budget statement has given approval for Digital Region, a £100 million project led by Yorkshire Forward, which will roll out next-generation broadband services to South Yorkshire. Most of the initial funding has been raised by attracting European, regional, local and private investment of over £90m.

The new fibre optic broadband network, which should have a positive impact on Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield, will be built, managed and operated by Thales UK, Alcatel-Lucent and KCOM (Kingston Communications).


The "Super-fast Broadband" service itself is expected to provide an open-access infrastructure, which aims to deliver "quality of service" and "guaranteed bandwidth" speeds of over 25Mbps to the majority of homes and businesses in South Yorkshire, reaching 1.2 million people.

Work on building the digital infrastructure will commence straight away, with the first service available before the end of the year. The first homes will be able to take up services during 2010. Connection to the network will be available through a range of service providers, national, regional and local.