HYPER-fast fibre optic broadband is inching ever closer to a cluster of rural communities in north Lancashire.

Drilling beneath the A6 road is the next step towards bringing high-speed broadband to the Yealand villages, say the volunteers behind B4YS, the community-led project to bring a hyper-fast broadband network to Yealand, Silverdale and Storth.

During recent weeks, underground ducts for carrying fibre optic cables have been burrowed under the M6 motorway, over the Lancaster Canal, under the West Coast Main Line railway and up to Yealand Village Hall.

Next, specialist contractors will drill under the A6 to complete the ducting, after which the final cable connections can be made at the village hall.

Community volunteers describe this as "amazing progress".

Digging is being done by a workforce of volunteers and landowners, to help their community and to earn shares in the broadband company; as well as by contractors, where roads like the A6 needed to be crossed, and where funds allow.

Shares are being sold to pay for ducting, fibre optic cables etc, and shares can also be earned by digging, at a rate of £1.50 per metre. One kilometre's worth of digging equals free connection and free broadband for a year.

The B4YS project began with five people frustrated by poor connectivity, and it has seen multiple routes carefully mapped out using bridges, farm outbuildings and culverts to cross road, rail and waterway obstacles.

Project volunteers say that every household that wants to be connected to high-speed broadband will be connected, and the work will get under way this year.

Fibre optics are thin strands of glass in underground cables that carry data at much greater speeds than the older copper cables in the UK's telecoms network.

At present, some rural homes have a download speed of just 2Mbps, but that could increase to 1000 Mbps.

Sending 200 pictures, for example, could take five seconds rather than 40 minutes; and downloading a movie could take 38 seconds rather than five hours-plus.

The B4YS community-led project is part of B4RN - Broadband for the Rural North, which is working to connect communities in north Lancashire and south Cumbria, through small parish projects.

For details visit: 

Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/B4YSfibre or the Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/B4YSfibre (Twitter Account: @B4YSfibre)