Rural NI Races Onto Internet

Country areas of NI are to blaze a trail on the high-speed Internet highway.

With news of a major infrastructure development, the Stormont Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster has today announced a further £250,000 of funds to support broadband technology trials and provision of access to high-speed commercial services in rural areas. The Minister announced that a fifth call for project applications will open on 27 September 2010 under the £1.9m Northern Ireland Broadband Fund, which is co-financed under the European Regional Development Fund Sustainable Competitiveness Programme 2007-2013.

Arlene Foster said: "Since its launch in August 2008, my Department has committed £640,000 under the Broadband Fund and we have already completed four of six projects.

"The legacy of our investment is significant, with high specification fixed wireless services now widely available across previously targeted locations," she said.

"However, the telecommunications market is fast moving and we continue to invest to ensure that our economy is supported by economic infrastructure.

"The challenge of delivering next generation, high speed broadband services into rural locations is not unique to Northern Ireland – it is a global issue. We are addressing this issue through the Broadband Fund, which offers the opportunity to businesses and organisations to demonstrate how new or emerging technologies can deliver rural growth and provide access to commercial, educational, Government and social services," the Minister continued.

"Telecommunications, and in particular broadband, remain a priority and the delivery of widespread access to very high bandwidth services is firmly on the EU and national agendas."

Announcing priority locations across counties Down, Armagh, Antrim and Tyrone, the Minister added: "Based on our experience with previous calls under the Fund, we expect to see a vibrant range of proposals which showcase the merits of a number of technologies.

"While we remain 'technology neutral', our ambition must be to support those proposals which deliver very high specification services which can be replicated across the region, are scalable and are on a par with the very best services available in the major cities," she explained.

"With funding of up to 50% of total eligible project costs available, the Fund offers significant financial incentive to applicants to meet these challenges."

(BMcC/GK)