A big BT boost for Cornish surfers

NEWS BT is to provide broadband internet to remote parts of Cornwall in a £12.5m scheme backed with money from Europe. The scheme, which could serve as a blueprint for other parts of the country, will see BT offering high-speed internet access and a bundle of IT support services to 33,000 small businesses. Cornwall currently has only one DSL-enabled exchange in Truro. Under this scheme BT will enable up to four new Cornish exchanges by March, with a further eight to follow if the initial project is a success. The scheme will be financed with £5m from the European Regional Development Fund, with £1m from the South West Regional Development Agency. The UK government has thus far been reluctant to open the public purse to fund broadband internet infrastructure. In the few projects where public money has been invested in broadband, demand has been very low. BT is hoping to make this project more successful by bundling in a range of consultancy services, to help businesses actually use the services it is planning to offer. In this way, it hopes the Cornish scheme will be more successful than similar pilots in Wales and Scotland, which saw very disappointing levels of take-up. BT hopes to repeat the project in other parts of the country, but unless the government fundamentally changes its policy on public funding for broadband, the Cornish model is not likely to be repeated. The Cornish scheme is to be known as ACT NOW, standing for Access for Cornwall through Telecommunications to New Opportunities Worldwide. BT hopes it will create up to 1,000 jobs.