Many communities in rural areas of North Yorkshire still have little or no access to high speed broadband. NYnet, established by North Yorkshire County Council to provide higher quality and faster broadband to the public sector, will improve services for public organisations such as schools, universities, council offices and many others across the whole of North Yorkshire.

Whilst NYnet can offer services to the public sector, it cannot supply businesses and householders with broadband due to European State Aid and Competition regulations. However, to address the private sector Yorkshire Forward and the European Regional Development Fund have given funding to utilise the extra capacity of this network to open up the market to Internet Service Providers (ISPs). It is hoped that as ISPs become aware of NYnet, broadband users will have a choice of ISPs who can provide cheaper and faster broadband as well as offer more services such as combination phone and broadband deals. Looking ahead, ISPs are likely to be offering or support many more ‘bandwidth hungry’ services such as video on demand. NYnet is in a unique position to help ISPs carry this massive increase in demand for bandwidth throughout a significant proportion of North Yorkshire.

The hope is that with this new access provided by the ISPs to the private sector, the range of products and services available to businesses and citizens across the region will bring economic development and improve social inclusion. Also by having access to high quality broadband services in the region it will help to attract investment, which in turn will mean more jobs and income in the area. The NYnet team are working closely with the ISP companies across the UK to attract investment in the network and thus kick start the knowledge economy and improve social inclusion within North Yorkshire. As ISPs sign on to the network we will provide information, via our newsletter and website of who to contact for enquiries on broadband services.

However, this may not address the access problem to those citizens who cannot presently receive broadband. These problems occur due to 2 main reasons. Firstly it could be due to the distance that the resident lives from the telephone exchange. The optimum distance for ADSL and ADSL2+ to work at full speed is within 3km of the serving exchange, anything further than that will result in slower speeds. The other problem is related to the quality of the copper from the home or business to the exchange. The copper may be of an inferior quality or is affected by external environmental factors.

NYnet is keen to communicate with community groups about possible community ISP projects in the region. With possible collaboration of existing public services within villages there is the hope that 'piggy backing' of services would help to solve some access problems. Also the NYnet team are investigating new technological innovations that may help to connect communities. Whilst NYnet would hope to cover equipment costs to access the core network, funding would still need to be raised by the community to supply the broadband services within that community. We will be talking to community groups who have already successfully created a network, which has become self financing and will use these as models for future projects in the North Yorkshire region.

To check if there is a community ISP set up in your area please check this page with contact details

If you are part of a community group who would be interested in discussing such a project or you would like more information please contact Julie Burton.