Northern Ireland to see £48m broadband boost

Northern Ireland urban areas to get minimum 10Mbit/s

Northern Ireland's communications infrastructure will be boosted to the tune of £48m, following financial commitments from BT and the EAFRD, according to Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster.

UK incumbent BT will invest almost £30m, with a further £18m to come from the European Regional Development Fund's (ERDF) Sustainable Competitiveness Programme, and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) programme.

Foster explained that the contract between the bodies would aid further development of Northern Ireland’s telecommunications infrastructure, and specifically the provision of Next Generation Broadband Services.

She said: "At a time of economic slowdown when private sector companies are scaling down their investments, this multi-million pound injection in our infrastructure could indirectly create up to 1,000 additional jobs per annum."

The project will see BT deploying fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology to businesses, in line with the tender specifications that will see businesses in urban areas receive a minimum downstream speed of 10Mbit/s, while rural businesses will receive a minimum of 2Mbit/s.

The rural minimum of 2Mbit/s corresponds to Lord Carter's intention as set out in the Digital Britain report published in June.

BT will be upgrading equipment in 166 exchanges across Northern Ireland and providing an extra 1,176 points of access.

Foster said the project was designed to deliver next-generation broadband speeds to 85 per cent of businesses in Northern Ireland by 2011. She added: " This fibre deployment means that further upgrades to Northern Ireland's infrastructure will be much easier to roll out."