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Public South Yorkshire fibre broadband project could be sold off
The 50 per cent of the scheme held by the regional development agency could be sold to a private telecoms firm.
It is expected that the super-fast broadband network will be deployed to 80 per cent of properties in the area within the coming months, but take-up has so far been disappointing, meaning profits have been lower than anticipated.
As a result, plans to roll out the infrastructure to 97 per cent of homes and businesses have had to be put on hold indefinitely.
The scheme's biggest problem is the lack of support it has received from internet service providers such as Sky and TalkTalk, which have opted against using the fibre broadband network on a wholesale basis.
Speaking to the Yorkshire Post, Phil Coppard - chief executive of Barnsley Council and a mainstay of the SYDR project - insisted it may be "no bad thing" if a private telecoms firm was to buy the 50 per cent shareholding in the initiative currently held by the regional development agency (RDA), Yorkshire Forward.
With the RDA set to be wound up by the government next year, all of its assets would automatically be handed back to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which may then decide to bring in a partner from the private sector.
"The interest for local authorities is to secure next-generation broadband for South Yorkshire," Mr Coppard explained.
"We have never said Digital Region is the only way we can do that and if there was a partner that came along and was wanting to work with us we would certainly talk to them."
According to Digital Region, once the project is completed it will serve a population of more than 1.3 million people, 40,000 businesses and 546,000 homes in and around the towns and cities of Sheffield, Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham.