Quickline Connect First North Yorkshire Homes Under Gigabit Broadband Contract

Rural focused UK ISP Quickline has today announced that they’ve connected the first homes under their £73.5m state-aid supported Project Gigabit roll-out contract for North Yorkshire (Lot 31). This will see their gigabit-capable broadband network extending to cover an additional 36,300 premises in some of the hardest-to-reach areas of the county.

Just to recap. The Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme aims to help extend 1Gbps (download) capable networks to reach “nationwide” coverage (c. 99% of the UK) by 2030. This is primarily focused on upgrading the final 10-20% of hardest to reach premises (mostly rural areas), with most of the rest being done by commercial deployments (current UK coverage is already at c. 86%).

NOTE: Quickline is supported by funding of c.£500m from Northleaf Capital Partners, as well as c.£296.4m of public subsidy from four Project Gigabit contracts (here, here and here), plus c.£225m in term loans and debt guarantees from the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) and a £25m term loan from NatWest.

In terms of Quickline’s Lot 31 contract, which was announced in July 2024 (here), the operator has now begun connecting the first homes to their new network. Villages and hamlets around Settle, Boroughbridge, Hunmanby, and Filey are among the first to benefit from this, but many more will follow.

Overall, just five months after being awarded the Project Gigabit contract in North Yorkshire, almost 5,000 more homes and businesses can access a gigabit-capable broadband connection. But this includes the first 46 premises included in the contract itself and a further 4,800 homes and businesses that have been connected through Quickline’s complementary commercial build. The provider’s commercial build in the county is expected to add a total of 50,000 premises once completed.

Work is also progressing rapidly in areas including Stokesley, Topcliffe, and Felixkirk, with hundreds more connections expected in the coming weeks.

Dan Hague, Quickline’s Project Gigabit Delivery Director, said:

“This success highlights Quickline’s commitment to bridging the digital divide. We’re proud to have won the government contract for North Yorkshire, but we’re even prouder to be delivering results so quickly. From the contract award in summer to the first connections before Christmas, we’re already transforming lives and businesses in rural North Yorkshire.”

Telecoms Minister, Sir Chris Bryant, said:

“I am thrilled to see that for many homes and businesses across North Yorkshire, the frustrations of buffering will soon be forgotten as they get access to lightning-fast internet speeds. Thanks to this government-funded programme, hard-to-reach parts of Yorkshire are now being equipped with the fastest speeds on the market, allowing communities to stay connected.”

Across all its Project Gigabit contracts, Quickline aims to connect 170,000 subsidised homes and businesses in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (England), rising to 360,000 when you include their plans for associated commercial builds.

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