News
The contract covers the rollout of full fibre to over 28,000 rural homes and businesses, primarily in West Yorkshire but also reaching some communities in North Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire
The UK government has awarded East Yorkshire-based ISP Quickline Communications £60 million in funding as part of the Government’s £5 billion Project Gigabit scheme.
Project Gigabit currently aims to deliver gigabit-capable broadband hard-to-reach communities, helping to bring the technology’s availability to at least 85% of UK premises by 2025 and the whole of the UK (roughly 99%) by 2030.
Specifically, rural communities to be connected as part of the Quickline contract include those surrounding Selby, York, Bradford, Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield, Harrogate, Skipton, Ripon, Keighley, Calder Valley, Stamford Bridge, and Pocklington.
Alongside the premises covered by the Project Gigabit contract, Quickline has confirmed that it will also make an additional (undisclosed) investment in these areas to add a further 58,000 premises to their full fibre networks.
However, there has been no word on timelines for either investment project.
“This is about more than just broadband; we’re passionate about supporting rural communities, driving economic growth, creating jobs and helping to build the future digital workforce,” said Sean Royce, CEO at Quickline in a press release.
“We recognise the importance of aligning industry, primary schools, communities, parents and higher and further education to ensure future skills meet future needs, and we want to inspire and energise the next generation.”
“We’ve hit a huge milestone in connecting a million homes and businesses in hard-to-reach communities across the country to fast, reliable broadband,” said Digital Infrastructure Minister Julia Lopez, calling the announcement “a huge boost for Yorkshire”.
Earlier this month, the UK’s largest altnet CityFibre was awarded nearly £400 million in government funding to provide full fibre to 202,000 rural premises in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Sussex, Kent, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Milton Keynes. CityFibre aims to cover 8 million premises with full fibre by 2025.
Want to keep up with all the latest developments in the UK telecoms market? Join the ecosystem in discussion at this year’s Connected North conference live in Manchester
Also in the news:
VMO2 records £3.3bn loss as interest rates begin to bite
Verizon to trial private 5G networks at NHL stadiums
From humble beginnings: The amazing journey of Hormuud Telecom CEO Ahmed Mohamud Yusuf