Will South Yorkshire be one of the first areas to benefit from investment in the digital infrastructure?
In a previous post I suggested that Sheffield could promote its intentions as an emerging creative and digital city by offering free municipal wi-fi to its residents.
Whether this will ever happen is another matter, but a related project has recently caught my eye that would give another boost to Sheffield’s digital credentials.
It is known as South Yorkshire digital region and seems to have passed a little bit under the radar, as I haven’t seen much coverage about it. The project basically seems to involve providing fibre to each telephone cabinet (what I gather is the green box on the pavement) plus introducing VDSL technology, both of which will greatly improve the capacity of the network to deliver faster broadband to more people.
It looks like the project is currently seeking ‘full ratification from all partners’ during October and November 2008, with the contract with Thales Transport and Security Limited, who will deliver and manage the project infrastructure, ready to be signed sometime this month.
Hopefully more news will be available soon on the slightly stale digital region website. In the meantime, the PDF brochure (2.4mb) and this BBC news story give a bit more background information.
What is for sure is that with the first phase of the Digital Campus development soon to be complete, any investment in the area’s digital infrastructure would be a big boost.
