Fibre boosts Cornish bid for digital business

BT and European Commission invest up to £132m in rural broadband rollout

A better place to surf than Hawaii

BT has announced a £78.5m investment in rolling out fibre broadband to Cornwall, potentially making the county one of the best-connected rural areas in Europe.

The European Commission is adding up to a further £53.5m from European Regional Development (ERD) Convergence funds.

The intention is to boost the local economy by attracting and retaining high-tech, high-growth creative and low-carbon businesses which make use of high-bandwidth connectivity.

The rollout of fibre broadband will create an estimated 4,000 new jobs and protect a further 2,000 under threat from recessionary pressures, said Alec Robertson, leader of Cornwall Council, at an announcement in Newquay.

“This gives businesses access to world-class communications which will dramatically increase their competitiveness,” he said.

Between 80 and 90 per cent of business and residents in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly will be able to connect to fibre to the premises (FTTP) and fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) services, said BT chief executive Ian Livingston.

Cornwall and the Welsh Valleys are the two rural areas in the UK identified as eligible for ERD funding.

“This is an investment in innovation, not a subsidy,” insisted Elizabeth Holt, European Commission spokesperson.

The move is an example of the Commission's 2020 Vision for Europe and Digital Agenda in action, said Holt.

BT is currently amid its £2.5bn next-generation access rollout which will bring fibre broadband with download speeds of up to 40Mbit/s and upload speeds of up to 10Mbit/s to two thirds of the UK population. Cornwall is classed as part of “the other third”.

The rollout runs through to 2014, but the first areas in the county will be connected in early 2011, said Livingston.

As an example of how the fibre rollout will benefit the region, University College Falmouth (UCF) will launch new courses and services as part of its Academy of Innovation and Research to train local business and encourage graduates to stay in the county and found creative businesses.

“You can't build a sustainable economy unless you have educated local people,” UCF chief executive Prof Anne Carlisle told Computing.

Even though the network will not be available to 100 per cent of Cornwall's citizens, the provision of fibre for the majority of the county will make it more viable to connect previous not-spots in the region.

“Our intention is to provide an uplift for everyone,” said Livingston.

The move gives BT useful experience in connecting peripheral regions, said analysts, but the ERD funding will only be available to one other deprived UK area and national regional development funds are being axed as part of public spending cuts.

“This project will provide BT with a blueprint and valuable experience of rolling out its superfast broadband network in more challenging rural locations. It is also a clear example of how to bridge the gap between private and public funding,” said Ovum analyst Mark Giles.

“However, with Wales being the only other region in the UK that qualifies for European funding, many other rural regions in the UK will be jealously looking on at a time when regional development agencies are being wound up, and uncertainty remains over the remit of their local economic partnership replacements,” Giles added.

But lack of external funding should not deter other rural areas which can band together to finance fibre rollout with BT, said Livingston.

“No one should wait around for this to be done for them by central government; they can get on and do it themselves. This is the big society in action,” he added.

As is normal with BT, access to the new fibre network will be provided on a wholesale basis to retail ISPs.

“We're not building a local monopoly,” said Livingston. “The UK has one of the most competitive access markets in the world.”