1,700 rural West Yorkshire firms set for connectivity boost with £9.1m scheme

More than 1,700 businesses in rural areas across West Yorkshire are to benefit from the third-phase roll out of a £9.1m superfast broadband scheme.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority is investing in the programme, to be delivered by Quickline Communications by October 2022, to support isolated businesses that are unable to establish connections of at least 30 megabits per second.

Some residential customers will also benefit from the coverage, which aims to offer improved access to online services and the ability to work remotely. The investment is expected to add £20 million to the Leeds City Region economy over the next 10 years.

Quickline Communications uses a combination of fibre and wireless technologies, including both fixed wireless access (FWA) and fibre to the premises (FTTP) to deliver superfast, ultrafast and in some cases, gigabit speeds.

It focuses on rural areas across northern England to support the hundreds of thousands of businesses premises which require increased broadband speeds. So far, 100,000 businesses and homes in the region have benefited from the Superfast West Yorkshire and York Broadband programme.

Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, chair of the combined authority and leader of Bradford Council, said: “The need for reliable, high speed broadband connections has never been more important than over the past few months when millions of us have been working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Once complete, this investment will enable businesses to work effectively no matter where they’re based and enable more people who can, to work effectively from home and commute less.”

The programme will be funded by £6.898 million from DEFRA, through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, £1.464 million from Quickline Communications and £748k from the Combined Authority.