North Yorkshire County Council has signed a £15.1 million contract with SCD Group of Leeds to deploy a new high speed fibre network around the county.
It will involve the provision of 180km of new fibre to 370 public sector sites in several towns including Harrogate, Scarborough, Skipton, Whitby and Settle.
The deal has been financed by North Yorkshire’s successful bid, along with its wholly owned connectivity provider NYNet and the county’s seven district councils, to the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Local Full Fibre Networks Challenge Fund.
The council is aiming to complete the project by March 2021, and said it expects the infrastructure to provide major benefits to public services in health and care and education.
Councillor Don Mackenzie, executive member for access, said: “The awarding of this contract is a further sign of our commitment to creating a strong digital infrastructure in the county.
“Better digital connectivity is a significant factor in creating and maintaining successful local economies and communities, nowhere more so than in North Yorkshire’s rural areas. High quality digital communications enable us to ignore geographic distances and help to overcome rural remoteness and isolation.”
Image by Tim Green, CC BY 2.0
