BROADBAND with speeds of up to one gigabit or 1,000 megabits per second (Mbps) is now accessible from another 365 homes and businesses across the Selby and Ainsty area.

The homes and businesses where the new service is now available are being notified individually by letter.

Nigel Adams, MP for Selby and Ainsty, said: “This is a major leap forward in technology with speeds of up to a Gigabit per second available, delivering the ultimate broadband performance. With many more people working from home superfast broadband has never been so important.”

John Readman, chief executive of Modo 25, a digital marketing company and who often works from home, added: “We live in Catterton and our upgrade was completed just as we entered lockdown. The new broadband is hundreds of times faster and meant I had no need during lockdown to go into Leeds to work and the children were able to continue to study through on-line lessons.”

The 365 homes and businesses that can now benefit from the latest upgrade are spread across the district and are in places where many are still connected via old technology.

In some of the villages that have just been upgraded the speeds are as low as one Mbps. The network upgrades have been delivered as part of phase three of the Superfast North Yorkshire Project which has already made high quality broadband available to more than 180,000 homes across North Yorkshire.

New connections are now being made with the very latest full fibre technology, known as NGA – New Generation Access. While speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps are available service providers are offering a range of speed options which typically start at about 40Mbps.

In total 14 village communities will benefit from this upgrade, either as an upgrade to the whole village, for example in Catterton, Thorpe Underwood, Smaws Hamlet and Lumby, or as an upgrade to part of a larger village like Kirk Hammerton. A number of properties outside the villages of Bolton Percy, Steeton, Escrick and Thorpe Willoughby will also be able to access full fibre broadband.

Mr Adams commented: “The broadband upgrade started in 2013 and is a continuous process as new technology is made available. When the project started in 2013 speeds were typically five Mbps or less, now speeds of over 25 Mbps are the norm. Speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps are truly New Generation Access and I am delighted that the Government is delivering on its promise to make Gigabit broadband much more widely available, especially to our rural communities.”