The UK’s leading rural full fibre broadband alternative network provider has pledged to connect underserved and hard-to-reach communities as work begins to extend its network to more than 16,000 homes and businesses in Yorkshire.

Gigaclear’s full fibre network already extends across 23 counties in southern and central England and its move into Yorkshire is a continuation of its expansion northwards. Engineers will start working in Brayton this week, moving on to Cawood, Thorpe Willoughby and Hillam later in the summer.

A timetable is currently being drawn up to connect a further six communities in West and North Yorkshire with Gigaclear liaising with North Yorkshire County Council’s highways department and parish councils to help ensure any disruption is kept to a minimum during the roll-out.

Gigaclear Delivery Director Tony Smith said: “We’ve been planning our move into Yorkshire for many months so it’s great to actually get feet on the ground and begin the work. Gigaclear is committed to delivering fast and reliable broadband to rural communities across its network, many of whom would otherwise struggle to access ultrafast speeds.

““Reliable and fast broadband speeds are no longer luxuries but are necessary in order for many people to live their lives fully, whether it’s working from home, streaming home entertainment or accessing the many money-saving SMART gadgets and security systems.”

Mr Smith said the engineering work has been planned to utilise existing Openreach ducts and poles wherever possible in order to minimise disruption and speed up the roll-out. He added that the plan is for Gigaclear to start providing full fibre broadband to customers in Yorkshire by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, Gigaclear announced it had secured up to £420m equity investment from Equitix to support its long-term plan to provide service to more than one million premises by 2027.