South Yorkshire roads to be dug up for next-generation broadband

An extensive network of fibre optic cabling is to be laid in South Yorkshire in order to provide next-generation broadband services, but the move will require roads to be dug up.

In order to provide the faster broadband services to most homes in the region by 2012, over 400 miles of roads will be dug up to lay 700km of cabling, although construction firm Thales has promised to minimise disruption, reports the Yorkshire Post.

The cabling will be run to street cabinets in regional neighbourhoods and then existing copper wiring will carry the connection into individual homes.

John Armley, general manager of Digital Region on behalf of Thales, told the paper: "This is large-scale work by anyone's book. This type of network over this size of region certainly hasn't been done in the UK before."

Providing faster broadband services could help maximise the efficiency of VoIP solutions and give businesses a more competitive edge.

The government plans to deliver connections of at least two megabits per second to every UK home by 2012.