Government Helps Rural Schools' Connectivity

Multi-million pound Rural Gigabit Connectivity initiative to be rolled out to remote schools in North Yorkshire.

12:54 15 July 2020

A multi-million-pound Rural Gigabit Connectivity (RGC) initiative is to bring fast, reliable broadband service to more than 20 rural primary schools in North Yorkshire. The much-needed broadband boost is key to deliver lessons to some of the remotest areas in England during the Covid-19 pandemic. The scheme is part of North Yorkshire County Council's scheme aimed at future-proofing for modern times, particularly in delivering education online. 

 

County Councilloar Don Mackenzie, executive member for access, said: "North Yorkshire is the country's largest county and we regularly face the challenges of ensuring that our rural areas are not disadvantaged by their remoteness when compared with our urban centres.

 

"High-quality digital infrastructure is one of the county council's top priorities and we are making substantial investments in broadband and mobile telephony." 

 

North Yorkshire's rural commission follows warning from headteachers about the provision gap that could lead to a two-tier system. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has previously said that the Government is committed to bringing gigabit-speed broadband to the whole of the UK in the next five years. The RPG scheme, which is delivered by the county council-owned NYnet, will see school benefit from speed of up to 100Mbps with the capability to be upgraded to 1Gbps.