North Yorkshire gets £16.4m in broadband funding

North Yorkshire, which is already a trial area for super-fast rural broadband provision, has picked up £16.4m in government funding for a wider rollout.

The Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) funding, announced on Friday, is intended to bring high-speed broadband to all consumers and businesses in the region by 2017, North Yorkshire County Council said in a statement.

The county council's broadband company, NYnet, is in talks with the European Regional Development Fund to get match funding, which would result in a total pot of between £25m-£30m.

"We are determined to ensure that businesses and the people of North Yorkshire continue to thrive and high quality broadband is essential to thriving communities," county councillor Carl Les said in the statement. "The ability to offer services such as remote access to computers and servers, video-conferencing, web-meetings and access to a company telephony system, will put North Yorkshire on a level playing field with the major cities such as Leeds and London."

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt also commented on the funding award, saying North Yorkshire's pilot scheme had "made real progress".

"The internet has become an integral part of our economy and our everyday lives. It is essential that all homes and businesses in the UK have access to decent broadband," Hunt said.

According to NYnet chief executive David Cullen, a procurement process is now underway to contract the building of the new network, and this process should be completed by June next year.