A huge £70million investment to improve broadband access in the Selby District and across North Yorkshire.

The investment to improve broadband access is about to get underway and improvements to residents broadband speeds should be completed by 2014.

Nigel Adams and fellow North Yorkshire Conservative MPs have been successful in getting nearly £70 Million for the “Connecting North Yorkshire” (CNY) project. The massive project will be managed by NYnet and BT. NYnet was set up in 2007 by North Yorkshire Council to bring high speed broadband to North Yorkshire and has a track record of delivering community broadband schemes.

Nigel recently paid a visit to the NYnet headquarters in Boroughbridge to see for himself what service improvements can be expected and when they should be delivered.

The CNY Team are working very closely with BT who were awarded the Government contract to upgrade the network and to ensure that North Yorkshire is not left behind as information technology advances.

The objective is that everybody should be able to get a minimum of 2Mbs speed access to the internet, no matter how far they are away from an exchange. However this is the minimum and the upgraded network should result in many places getting 25Mbs speed or superfast broadband as it is referred to. or more.

Nigel commented: “Over just a few years broadband has gone from being a luxury to an essential - both for businesses and for residents. But not everybody can get a good broadband service because the telephone network was never designed to carry broadband, it was designed for telephone conversations. Broadband is a very clever technology, but it works best for people close to a telephone exchange”

Rural communities are put at an enormous disadvantage because they usually live further away from an exchange - their broadband is either slow or does not work at all.

Nigel added: “In the two years since becoming an MP I have received a high number of complaints about broadband speeds from people across the Selby and Ainsty constituency. I have a background in telecomms, having set up my own business to deliver advanced telephony services to businesses so I am well aware of the technical limitations of broadband and what has to be done to overcome these limits. This £70million investment is fantastic news for Selby and Ainsty residents and The project team is developing a web site that will allow people to find out what speeds and when service will be available in their communities."

If residents think their broadband speed is unacceptable, they should visit the NYCC website at www.northyorks.gov.uk/broadband and input their details including their current broadband speed.