Northern Ireland's government executive is seeking suppliers for the delivery of high-speed broadband services and infrastructure across the region.

The winner of the competitive tender will be offered European Regional Development Fund grant funding of between £8-12m by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI), but this will only be used, “to support the provision of improved broadband services in areas not served, or unlikely to be served by the market with a particular focus on business end users.”

Other funding of £3-7m will be used to maximise coverage of broadband services and infrastructure in areas of higher business density.

One of DETI’s targets is to increase the availability of next-generation broadband speeds to 85 per cent of businesses by 2011.

The announcement specifies the participation not just of the main contractor but for, “the selected service provider(s) to provide a wholesale service, at an appropriate wholesale price, which will be available to other service providers in the market.”

DETI envisages that “the contract will expire and terminate five years after the date of successful rollout/implementation of infrastructure/services.”