NYnet, a six-month-old publically-owned, privately-run
communications network in North Yorkshire, could provide a
blueprint for extending fast broadband networks to under-served
rural areas.
Traditionally, rural users face high charges for broadband
connections outside major towns and transmission speeds far slower
than advertised. Telecommunications providers are reluctant to
invest in areas where traffic volumes are small and distances are
large because returns are low and costs high. As a result people in
rural areas generally have limited access to advanced high speed
comunications services.
But NYnet, based in
Boroughbridge, has joined an eight-country, £2.4m European
Commission study on how to overcome suppliers' resistance to
investing in high speed communications networks in
sparsely-populated areas.
Len Cruddas, CEO of the York & North Yorkshire chamber of
commerce, welcomed NYnet. "It is early days, but we are already
seeing positive effects, especially in the business parks that it
is targeting," he said. "As NYnet becomes better known and more
people take advantage of it, we expect it to be transformational in
the local economy."
He said the region had many small businesses that either sold
goods online or created electronic products. NYnet allowed them to
compete on more equal terms with urban firms because its speed and
pricing were equal or better than broadband links in towns, he
said.
NYnet came in to being last year because the North Yorkshire
County Council and Yorkshire Forward economic development agency
felt the region was i n danger of being left behind in the
knowledge economy. The latest Ofcom figures show broadband
penetration in rural Yorkshire and Humberside at 16% for rural
areas compared to 55% in towns.
The two Yorkshire agencies negotiated with public services
suppliers such as schools, libraries, disaster recovery, council
offices, police, NHS and others to aggregate their communications
traffic. The county council contributed by migrating its own
network, covering 484 sites, to the fibre ring. And local councils
ageed to share services and procurement information, bulking up
orders to gain volume discounts. This traffic provided a base load
that justified an investment of £42.5m over 10 years in an optical
fibre ring network to serve some 600,000 people and 50,000
businesses.
NYnet, which won the management contract, subcontracted network
management to BT Global
Services.
Andy Lister, Nynet's sales and marketing director, said the
initial problem was to get enough traffic to justify the
investment. With public sector traffic secured, retail broadband
prices are competitive with London or Leeds, says Lister.
He is using local ISPs to tackle the region's 60-odd business
parks. One is Save9, a
Scarborough communications services company that now provides
secure managed IT and communications services to the 50 businesses
in Scarborough's £4.8m
Woodend Creative
Centre, a digital business park and incubator.
Save9 managing director Steve Bronham said the availability of
the ring network has attracted new businesses such as web
designers, database firms and digital artists as well as the BBC to
the town. "The BBC could not do digital video here without the high
speed links," he said.
Lister says each knowledge-economy job was worth £1m over 10
years. "Six months after going live, it is too soon to say just how
many jobs we will create or attract," he said. But, he claims,
taxpayers have already benefited because local councils are able to
use the fibre optic ring to collaborate on bulk buying.