Super-fast broadband service goes live in North Yorkshire village

Ainderby Steeple is the first village in North Yorkshire to be connected to a government-funded BDUK fibre broadband service.

The partnership between BT and North Yorkshire County Council, dubbed Superfast North Yorkshire, implemented the fibre broadband upgrade with 17.8 million of funding from government agency Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK).

A further 8.6 million for the service comes from the European Regional Development Fund and a further 10 million from BT's own wallet.

Communications Minister Ed Vaizey, was on hand to unveil the first cabinet that will provide superfast access to 90 rural homes.

"Ainderby Steeple is mentioned in the Doomsday Book," said Vaizey. "Unfortunately, until now, the people of this magnificent rural community would have struggled to find out more about their history online because of frustratingly slow download speeds. Thanks to our 530m investment in rural broadband, that is all about to change and the people of Ainderby Steeple can enjoy download speeds of a stunning 80Mbps."

According to a statement by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, it will approve more than 40 rural broadband programmes over the next few months to hit government targets of giving 90 per cent of UK homes and businesses a connection speed of at least 2Mbps.

The government recently managed to get EU approval for its BDUK super fast broadband plans after the EU ruled that the 530 million it put aside for the rollout of fibre to rural communities did not breach state aid rules.

Waiting for approval meant that several schemes to implement fibre broadband to rural areas around the country had to be put on hold.

However there has been criticism of the scheme that has meant that only BT has won contracts to provide fibre broadband.