Superfast Broadband

Most should have received a card in the post about this today, inviting you to visit http://www.superfastnorthyorkshire.com/ to register an interest.

It's unclear if this will do any good as their mapping suggests only an area about 1 mile radius around Castleton exchange will be able to get it.
Most of Westerdale is shown in 2Mb per second area (slower than most can get on ADSL!).

It is probably worth emailing them if you would like to receive this.
info@superfastnorthyorkshire.com
It can do no harm even if you are not sure.
The main difference in practice will be much improved upload speeds which really are quite poor on ADSL.

If you want to watch a video clip 2MB is not really adequate even if it isn't HD.
The problem is that whereas in the past sites were designed to load on dial-up speeds they are increasingly assuming you have reasonably fast broadband.
For example windows updates are now likely to be 100mb plus.
This trend will only continue.

It would seem a more sensible investment to ensure almost every community had access to reasonably fast broadband and mobile coverage than spending billions so you can go on a train from Manchester to London and save ten minutes.
It seems another example of urban-centric government.

I suppose we should be pleased that water, power and phone lines were installed at a time when modern services were considered essential for almost all.