Foster welcomes BT’s broadband investment in Bangor

Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster welcomed BT’s announcement, today, of a new investment in Northern Ireland’s telecoms infrastructure.

The Minister said: “This is a further significant and very welcome investment in our telecommunications infrastructure. BT’s investment comes on top of the £48 million Next Generation Broadband Project, which I announced in December.”

BT’s investment will bring speeds of up to 40 mb/s, rising to 60 mb/s to nearly 30,000 households and businesses in the Bangor exchange area, by the end of the summer. It will also bring the total number of exchanges, delivering high broadband speeds, across Northern Ireland, to 167.

The £48 million Next Generation Broadband Project involves the introduction of new technology to increase broadband speeds of a minimum of 10Mb/s to businesses in urban areas and 2Mb/s to businesses in rural areas, in Northern Ireland, over the next 18 months.

Arlene Foster added: “High quality telecoms infrastructure is an important tool for Northern Ireland businesses. If fully utilised by companies, it can make transactions easier, facilitate innovation and raise productivity.

“My Department has had the vision to strive for the highest quality telecoms, which can be afforded. It has worked hard, and in close partnership with the telecoms industry in recent years, to bring that vision to a reality and we are now seeing significant delivery on the ground.”

The Minister continued: “The Northern Ireland Executive recognises the importance of telecommunications as part of its priority of ‘Growing A Dynamic, Innovative Economy’. The Next Generation Broadband Project will deliver on the Programme for Government target, to ensure that 85% of all businesses in Northern Ireland will be able to access a next generation network by March 2011.

“Modern telecommunications move fast and Northern Ireland must keep pace. When the Next Generation Broadband Project has been completed, few, if any, parts of the British Isles will have anywhere near the amount of fibre that will be deployed in Northern Ireland by 2011.”

The Minister concluded: “I welcome this latest investment and BT’s proactive approach to next generation broadband in Northern Ireland. I strongly encourage businesses to maximise their use of the available telecoms infrastructure to reap the commercial benefits for them and the wider regional economy.”

Notes to editors:

1. BT announced today a further 30,000 homes and businesses in Northern Ireland will this year benefit from BT’s £1.5 billion UK-wide plans for super-fast fibre-based broadband. The company announced that Bangor was one of 63 locations in the UK to be upgraded with fibre-based broadband by the end of summer 2010.
2. Under the Next Generation Broadband Project, announced by the Enterprise Minister, Arlene Foster, on 3 December 2009, the tender won by BT specified that businesses in urban areas should receive a minimum downstream speed of 10Mb/s and ones in rural areas 2Mb/s. This will be delivered with many businesses set to receive speeds well in excess of those benchmarks. In rural areas over a quarter of businesses will have access to 5 meg or better. Likewise for those in urban areas 40% of them will have access to 20 meg or better.
3. BT is investing close to £30 million in the Next Generation Broadband Project, with a further £18 million coming from the Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment (DETI), under the European Regional Development Fund's (ERDF) European Sustainable Competitiveness Programme and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD), under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) Rural Development Programme.
4. For media enquiries, please contact DETI Press Office on 028 9052 9297. Out of office hours, please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.