Northumberland County Council has become the latest local authority to embark on a multi-million pound superfast broadband rollout with telco giant BT.
The aim of the 18.9 million deal is to provide high-speed fibre broadband to 95 per cent of homes and business in the county by early 2016.
The project, dubbed iNorthumberland, will require 660 km of fibre to be laid out, which will be used to deliver broadband speeds of up to 80Mbps to 91 per cent of the region's premises.
A further four per cent will benefit from broadband speeds of around 2Mbps, while BT has also vowed to work with the area's remaining homes and businesses to find ways to boost their connectivity too.
At present, the county is reported to enjoy average downstream speeds of 8.3 Mbps, while around 16 per cent premises receive less than 2Mbps.
BT was awarded the deal through the Broadband Deliver UK (BDUK) initiative, and will contribute 2.9 million towards its completion.
The council has agreed to invest 7 million in the project, and also accrued the same amount in funding from BDUK. The European Regional Development Fund has also pledged 2 million to support the rollout.
Responsibility for the project's delivery will pass over to the council's private sector development company Arch in May, who will also work closely with BT to ensure the aforementioned delivery targets are met.
Once deployed, the network will be open to all comms providers on a wholesale basis.
Kate Roe, Northumberland County Council's deputy chief executive, said the aim is to start rolling out superfast services to residents from next year.
"This is an important step in the campaign to bring faster broadband speeds to every home, business and school in Northumberland,"
"Working with BT we will be announcing the installation schedule in the coming months and communities across the county can look forward to improved access to online services and better connectivity for businesses from 2014 onwards," added Roe.
Bill Murphy, BT's managing director for Next Generation Access, said the project will open up new business opportunities in this largely rural area.
"Northumberland is a large rural county with many remote premises. As a result, deploying broadband is a substantial challenge but a vital one which will help local businesses to be competitive and ensure they remain in the county," he said.
"It can also play an important role in attracting even more firms to the county thereby helping to create jobs for local people."
