THOUSANDS more homes and businesses across North Yorkshire are set to get high-speed broadband.

North Yorkshire County Council is beginning the latest phase of expansion of its Superfast North Yorkshire project, which has in Phases 1, 2 and 3 already brought high-quality broadband to more than 180,000 homes and businesses throughout the county.

The process of choosing a suitable broadband service provider for Phase 4 of the project is now under way. The contract is worth up to £12.5m and will deliver Next Generation Access (NGA) to thousands of additional premises across North Yorkshire where NGA technology is not yet available.

The announcement comes at a time when, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, many North Yorkshire residents have been isolating or working at home and high-quality broadband connections have been more important than ever.

Cllr Don Mackenzie, Executive Member for Access, said: “This is very good news for residents and businesses in our county. The last few months have shown how important good broadband is for us all, and the county council's latest investment in IT infrastructure could not come at a better time, particularly for our more rural communities, who would not otherwise receive this service.”

This latest phase of the project will make a further significant contribution towards realising the vision of achieving as close to 100 per cent superfast coverage as available funding will allow.

This joint endeavour will offer access to critical broadband infrastructure for residents, communities and businesses across some of the remotest areas of North Yorkshire. It will provide the ability to utilise existing and future services such as social, medical and remote care facilities, allowing greater independence as well as providing the core infrastructure to enable our communities and businesses to connect and remain competitive, sustainable and prosperous.

The project is funded by the County Council and is managed on behalf of the council by NYnet. The plan is to complete the procurement process and announce the supplier by December 2020.

Visit the Superfast North Yorkshire website for more information.