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Northern Ireland Hopes to Spur Rural ISP Competition with Broadband Fund

5:01 am on August 13, 2008 | Category: Business, Internet, Telecom Services

Northern Ireland, a constituent country within the United Kingdom, is hoping to promote the extension of broadband services to its citizens with the creation of a Â£1.9 million ‘Northern Ireland Broadband Fund.’

Financed under the European Regional Development Fund Sustainable Competitiveness Programme, the broadband fund will support businesses in testing and rolling out new broadband infrastructure, particularly in rural areas. It is hoped that the initiative will encourage competition and increase average bandwidth speeds in under-served parts of Northern Ireland.

“The delivery of next-generation broadband services is high on the agenda of the Northern Ireland Assembly,” said the region’s economy minister, Arlene Foster. “The fund provides an excellent opportunity to pilot emerging technologies that will inevitably be part of the range of broadband solutions.”

“One of our biggest challenges will be to identify affordable, commercially sustainable solutions for the delivery of services into rural areas,” Foster added. “That challenge is not unique to Northern Ireland and successes under the fund carry the potential for global application.”

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