More than 36,000 homes and businesses in rural North Yorkshire will soon get access to lightning-fast broadband.

Rural broadband provider Quickline has won a contract worth approximately £70m to connect hard-to-reach premises in North Yorkshire, under the Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme.

Areas covered under the rollout stretch from Settle, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, to the seaside towns of Whitby and Scarborough.

After communities near Settle, this latest roll-out will extend to villages around Knaresborough, Scarborough and Whitby.

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The move follows the Hull-based company already rolling out broadband in Escrick, between York and Selby, after it won a contract in February to roll out broadband to 28,000 homes in York, Selby, York, Harrogate, Ripon, Stamford Bridge, Pocklington, Bradford, Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield, Keighley, and the Calder Valley.

As a result of this latest investment, Quickline will also expand its commercial network in North Yorkshire to reach even more premises.

As well as the £70m contract covering parts of North Yorkshire, Quickline has also been awarded a new £120m contract to provide fibre broadband to rural areas In East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

In total, Quickline has now been awarded four Project Gigabit contracts, spanning North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

It brings the total public investment in full fibre broadband delivered by Quickline to nearly £300 million.

Quickline CEO Sean Royce said: “The awarding of these contracts underlines our position as the primary Project Gigabit broadband provider in rural Yorkshire.

“We are now the UK’s second largest Project Gigabit regional delivery partner and the only provider to be awarded a contract serving England’s largest county, Yorkshire, under the programme.”

Project Gigabit is a government-funded programme to enable hard-to-reach communities to access lightning-fast, gigabit-capable broadband.

Digital Infrastructure Minister Chris Bryant said: "Our £190m investment in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire will heal the headache of endless buffering felt by too many in rural communities, while building the infrastructure needed to attract new investment and ensure the benefits of digital technology reverberate across every corner of the country.”

North Yorkshire Council leader Carl Les said: “To have such a large part of the county benefiting from one of the new contracts is really significant, with communities from Scarborough to Settle set to see improvements under the investment.”

The awarding of the new contract will also see Quickline broaden its commitment to skills, training and community support under its extensive social values programme.

As part of Project Gigabit, Quickline has committed to create more than 200 apprenticeships in the areas covered by the contracts through collaboration with build partners, as well as delivering over 2,500 accredited training courses and online work experience for 1,400 students.