Cornwall to get superfast broadband network

Published 01st Oct 2010

Cornwall, known for its surfing beaches, is about to become one of the best connected areas in the world with a new high-speed broadband network to lure businesses to the economically underdeveloped region.

BT and the European Union have provided funding to build a superfast 132 million pound network with broadband speeds of up to 100 Mbits per second, which should attract new companies and enable local firms to become more competitive.

"Cornwall is going to be a much better place to surf than California," Cornwall council Chief Executive Ian Livingston told a press conference overlooking the sea.

Britain lags countries such as Japan, Korea and some parts of Europe in developing high-speed Internet. The average broadband speed across Britain is 5.2 Mbit per second, with speeds of 5.8 in urban areas and 2.7 in rural areas.

Cornwall's council said the project had the potential to attract thousands of new jobs and transform the local economy in the south west of England, which has long been driven by tourism and agriculture.

The roll out of the new network, which will cover Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, will begin immediately and be completed by 2014.

BT, which is rolling out a high-speed network across more urban parts of Britain, will provide 78.5 million pounds and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) will provide investment of up to 53.5 million pounds.

The ERDF said the project would be the largest investment of its kind supported by European funds in the European Union. The ERDF provides funding because Cornwall has been designated as being below the economic output average in Europe.

The plan could also take on added significance as telecoms providers are engaged in a debate with the government over how to provide broadband services to rural areas which would be expensive and complicated.

BT has said it would provide fibre services to two-thirds of the premises in Britain by 2015 but that it cannot commercially cover the final third without some kind of partnership such as central government funding.

Cornwall was not included in the original scheme for covering two-thirds of the country.

Asked if success in the region could result in BT expanding its super-fast network plans, Livingston said success would be a lot easier to sell. "If take-up is better than we think, it does make the economics better," he said.

He told Reuters in general they expected about a fifth of premises to take superfast broadband within four to five years, and said Cornwall could do better than that.

He said they were also talking to other local authorities about how to provide fibre services outside the two-thirds they are covering.

Source: ' Reuters '

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