Superfast South Yorkshire achieves major 100k broadband milestone in Doncaster

The partnership, between the four South Yorkshire local authorities, UK Government and Openreach, has invested more than £35 million so far to bring superfast and full fibre broadband to thousands of communities.

Most recently hundreds of people living and working in communities such as Ecclesfield, High Green, Hoyland, Kiveton, Maltby, Penistone, Silkstone and Thorne have been upgraded and can now enjoy the benefits of a full fibre broadband network which offers some of the fastest broadband speeds in Europe.

Martin Owens, Superfast South Yorkshire Programme Manager, said: “We’re delighted so many residents and businesses can and are taking advantage of the improved broadband speeds across the region. Fast, reliable broadband is more important than ever before as people are working from home, starting businesses and streaming content on multiple devices.”

One South Yorkshire resident taking full advantage of the boost in speed is Martin Nettleton.

He said: “The increased speeds are making a huge difference for us as a family. With three adults working from home full time there’s a lot of demand on the network and before the upgrade it sometimes struggled to support our needs. If we were all online at the same time maybe on video calls or downloading files we often experienced interruptions and slowdowns which could be really frustrating. Now we can all be on separate video calls at the same time safe in the knowledge the broadband won’t let us down.

“It’s not just work where I’m feeling the benefit - I’m registered blind, and I’ve also found the faster speed is supporting my day to day living. I can now use assistive smart technology which I’d given up on with the old broadband. Since upgrading I’ve been programming commands into Alexa devices to make sure lights are on before I go into rooms and I’m planning to exploit more assistive smart technology now that my broadband has made it possible.”

The Superfast South Yorkshire partnership builds on hundreds of thousands of premises being able to access superfast broadband as a result of Openreach’s own commercial roll-out programme.

The company is now busy building ‘full fibre’ commercially across South Yorkshire, most recently in locations such as Tankersley, Maltby, Stocksbridge and Tickhill. More than 130,000 homes and business can already upgrade to ultrafast broadband speeds.

Robert Thorburn, Openreach Partnership Director, said: “The Superfast South Yorkshire partnership is a great success and testament to the team.

“While Openreach engineers have worked hard to build the new network and make new technologies available our local authority partners have done an incredible job raising awareness of what’s available and getting residents and businesses excited about reaping the benefits of faster, better broadband.

“Our commercial investment across South Yorkshire also continues at pace - with more than 130,000 homes and businesses now able to access full fibre broadband on our network - and we’re determined to deliver a great service which helps South Yorkshire thrive and supports people to work from home easily, keep in touch with their loved ones and build connections and opportunities.”

In these confusing and worrying times, local journalism is more vital than ever. Thanks to everyone who helps us ask the questions that matter by taking out a subscription or buying a paper. We stand together. Nancy Fielder, editor.