North Yorkshire County Council has signed for a new network with an eye on boosting broadband availability in the area.
NYnet, a joint venture between the council and the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward, will provide the wide area network under a 10-year deal worth £42.4m.
It will cover council offices, schools, libraries and disaster-recovery centres. While the network will not be directly available to businesses, the council believes that it will provide the infrastructure which internet service providers (ISPs) could use to provide business and domestic services in the area.
The absence of major urban conurbations has deterred ISPs from a big investment North Yorkshire and given it a reputation as a desert for broadband services.
The council said that NYnet provides the fastest public-sector telecoms network in Europe. A spokesperson for NYnet said the core network has a maximum capacity of 32Gbps, which can be extended further.
John Marsden, chief executive of North Yorkshire County Council, said: "We are very pleased NYnet is progressing with the core county council contract. The move means that, for no additional cost, NYCC will be able to deliver massively improved e-services, enhancing the quality and efficiency of service to our citizens.
"As well as being unique in the UK, the NYnet offering is seen as one of the most ground-breaking technology-based initiatives in Europe and is being watched with interest."
He said the council will begin to work with public-sector partners to develop the network's potential for shared services in areas such as HR, procurement and financial applications.
"This ability will create improved services, value for money and huge cost savings for those who choose to adopt this approach," he said.
The contract, which will see the migration of the entire North Yorkshire County Council network over two years for 484 sites, has already started with the connection of disaster-recovery and storage area network (SAN) facilities in Scarborough. Full migration will begin during the spring and is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2009.
David Cullen, NYnet's chief executive, said the deal will enable the company to increase its number of points of presence — the server banks in the main towns — from 12 to 40. This should help to improve the speed, security and future proofing of organisations' virtual private networks.
