KINGSTON inbusiness, the national business services division of Kingston Communications, has won a two-year contract worth £668,600 to speed up links between the University of York and all the other major universities in Yorkshire.

The organisation is to bring extra broadband power to the Yorkshire and Humberside Metropolitan Network (YHMAN) which links nine Yorkshire universities.

The campus network between York, Bradford, Leeds, Lincoln and Sheffield universities which supports collaboration in learning, is to be given an extra boost, along with Internet connections for all the Further Education colleges in the region.

Kingston inbusiness will use its advanced national fibreoptic network completed last year to upgrade the flow capacity of data traffic.

Dr Richard Heseltine, chairman of the Board of YHMAN Ltd, said that since his organisation's launch four years ago it had been a resounding success.

"With the ever-increasing dependence on IT and electronic teaching methods, the additional capacity and resilience that Kingston inbusiness is adding will ensure that we have the infrastructure in place to handle increasingly large quantities of data."

Andrew Tapley, regional director of Kingston inbusiness, said the speed-up would ensure "that Yorkshire remains a seat of educational excellence in the future."

Updated: 11:27 Tuesday, February 19, 2002