A BROADBAND future may lie ahead for even the most rural parts of Ryedale.

BT this week laid plans to complete the roll-out of high-speed broadband throughout North Yorkshire.

It will:

Upgrade every exchange where there is sufficient demand;

Seek public sector support to stimulate awareness and demand;

Encourage external involvement and explore other technologies such as wireless where demand is unlikely to justify BT's exchange investment alone.

The goal is to bring broadband communications within reach of every business and household in North Yorkshire by 2005.

The accelerated investment programme is based on BT's successful exchange registration scheme which encourages customers to show there is a demand for broadband in their area. When registrations reach the agreed level, BT then upgrades its exchange.

BT said it was now able to allocate target or "trigger" registration levels to 2,300 more exchanges across the UK. They serve about 2m customers. Once enabled, BT ADSL broadband would be available from exchanges serving more than 99pc of homes and businesses nationally.

Involvement by the public sector, especially regional and local government, will be needed to help stimulate the demand needed to encourage broadband investment.

86 exchanges in North Yorkshire have been given target trigger levels for the first time.

Brian Greenwood, BT's Yorkshire and the Humber regional director, said: "BT's ambition is that everybody in North Yorkshire can be connected to a broadband-enabled BT exchange.

"If they can demonstrate that the demand is there, BT will invest, in confidence that we are meeting our customers' needs.

"However, we will be also looking for involvement and support by the public sector. Local councils, regional development agencies and other public organisations, can help raise levels of awareness and accelerate broadband roll-out."

In North Yorkshire, Pickering and Bedale will go live today.

Nationally, the BT initiative will still leave 600 of the very smallest exchanges in the UK without a trigger level, each serving fewer than 300 customers. Ten serve fewer than ten customers each.

These areas, serving around 100,000 households, will also require different partnership investment approaches to receive broadband, such as BT Exchange Activate, which allows external partners to buy ADSL capacity for as few as 30 customers on an exchange.

There is also the issue of how to address the small percentage of people who live in already enabled areas but who are currently unable to get ADSL broadband.

BT is currently trialling new wireless solutions and is working to extend the physical reach of ADSL from enabled exchanges.

Brian Greenwood said: "BT's plans include everybody who lives and works in every part of the county."

Visit www.btplc.com/broadband-partnerships for more information about BT, its triggers, broadband, and partnership approaches.

North Yorkshire County Council has welcomed the news from British Telecom.

Council chief executive Jeremy Walker said: "We've been working closely with British Telecom for some time and pressing upon them the need for more innovative solutions.

"The county council has already created a countywide wireless-based broadband network for public sector and business use. This will be a key building block in the new strategy."

Updated: 11:54 Wednesday, November 19, 2003