Rural Midlands gets broadband... rejoice!

NEWS The area of Bredon Hill in Worcestershire is to join the broadband revolution - hailing another important victory for rural broadband campaigners. Bredon Hill, situated a couple of miles east from the junction of the M5 and M50 outside Worcester will be connected to the high-speed internet in a pilot scheme this summer thanks to collaboration between the government, telecoms consultancy Analysys and funding from Advantage West Midlands - the area's Regional Development Agency. It is hoped the scheme will create an understanding of the value and take-up of broadband services for SMEs. The DTI Regional Development Agency is hoping to speed-up the take-up of broadband services in rural Britain. The announcement follows a successful campaign which identified significant demand for broadband in the area, particularly from small businesses. The scheme is the second of its kind and follows a similar launch in Leominster, Herefordshire. James Saunby, head of ICT at Advantage West Midlands, said: "The availability of broadband is becoming increasingly important to businesses and we are examining ways of making affordable broadband services available to rural communities across the region to support their future economic prosperity. This pilot will help us examine ways of getting broadband more widely deployed across the West Midlands region." Prices for the broadband services will be announced shortly but are expected to be similar to those in other parts of the country. Businesses in the area will be offered symmetric DSL (SDSL) services with faster upload speeds, which, it is claimed, are more suited to some business applications than standard asymmetric DSL (ADSL) services. Following a competitive tender process Coventry-based network operator Independent Networks has been chosen to deploy broadband in the pilot area and will soon begin installing equipment adjacent to the BT exchanges at Overbury, Bredon, Ashton-Under-Hill and Eckington, with the help of funding from Advantage West Midlands. Broadband services using digital subscriber line (DSL) technology will be available to customers with a BT telephone line connected to one of these exchanges. ISP services will be provided by Independent Network partner ISP PRONET. For more information, visit:www.advantagebroadband.co.uk