European showcase for UK broadband company

A major European Commission conference with be showcasing a new ground-breaking computer network that will allow communities and businesses to access low cost broadband.

Due to the lack of broadband and internet access in the more rural areas of the county, the North Yorkshire County Council has set up NYnet to improve this. In an effort to encourage rural areas all over Europe to follow with similar schemes this first of its kind project is being share now with other countries in Europe.

The chief executive of NYnet, David Cullen said “300 million Europeans are excluded from the digital economy. A third of these people are excluded because they can’t get fast, solid or reliable broadband. We aim to improve social and economic prospects and service capabilities moving the area into the 21st Century and to put North Yorkshire and the UK on the map as rural broadband providers.”
Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency has spent £4 million along with £1 million by Europe to launch NYnet. The service will benefit a total of almost 600 000 people all over North Yorkshire. The council with allow it to connect 200 buildings like libraries and 400 schools to the internet with a contract lasting 10 years.

The director of financial services at North Yorkshire Council, John Moore said “We needed this service for our own use and there was no obvious way we could encourage service providers to invest because of the small commercial returns. We decided to invest in our own network by setting up a private sector company which would then attract funding from other businesses. North Yorkshire has the highest percentage of small businesses in the UK. We want them to thrive not just survive.”

A spokesman for the B3 regions project at the European Commission, Vittorio Vallero said “The aim of the B3 project is to share experiences and good practices with each other and we will be holding workshops to do this. One of the themes will be broadband, which NYnet are involved in, and we will be discussing demand, aggregation and creating conditions for a broadband market in rural areas where there is little access.”