Local water pipes in trial to deliver high-speed broadband to residents and businesses
One of my key priorities for my constituency is to ensure people and businesses have good access to high speed broadband services, so it's wonderful news that Penistone has been selected by the Government to receive £3.2 million of funding to trial a new 'Fibre in Water' scheme to improve broadband connectivity in the area.
New fibre optic cables will be run through 17 kilometres of Yorkshire Water's pipes between Barnsley and Penistone, avoiding the need for new above-ground infrastructure or expensive and disruptive digging up of roads.
Broadband providers will then be able to connect to this new high-speed network to bring faster, more reliable internet connectivity to around 8,500 homes and business in the Penistone area.
The new infrastructure will also support new 5G masts to help improve broadband speeds and reliability in harder to reach, more isolated rural areas.
Overall, this pioneering project will speed up the time it takes to install fibre optic cables, reduce disruption and impact on the landscape, and bring faster, more reliable connectivity to local residents and businesses.
This is a fantastic opportunity for Penistone to lead the UK in developing new technology.
I wrote to the Minister for Digital Infrastructure in November last year to make the case for the Yorkshire Water Penistone bid, and I'm delighted that our local area has been selected by the Government as the site for this innovative trial.
