EEDA - East of England Development Agency

East of England to benefit from the UK’s largest investment in super-fast broadband

23 March 2009

The East of England Development Agency (EEDA) has welcomed the news that the region is to benefit from the UK’s largest investment in super-fast broadband.

EEDA said access to super-fast broadband would boost innovation, business and training, as well as keeping the region competitive in world markets.

BT announced today that it would be installing fibre-based broadband in parts of Hemel Hempstead, St Albans, Watford, Chelmsford and Luton, including Leagrave, early next year as part of a £1.5 billion national project

Deborah Cadman, EEDA chief executive, said:

"This is very good news for businesses and communities in the East of England. Broadband has been a vital part of the success story of this region and super-fast broadband will play an ever more important role when competing in a world market. Businesses are using it to boost their competitiveness and find new customers, while households are benefiting from new entertainment and educational opportunities.

“EEDA is committed to supporting the development of next generation broadband in our region and, having identified real demand for super-fast broadband in the East of England, we will continue to work with BT and other organisations to extend its provision.

“Today's announcement will keep our region at the forefront of the UK's economic performance and position our businesses well for the future."

Deborah said that EEDA’s Eastern Region Broadband Uplift Scheme (EREBUS) will encourage commercial suppliers to invest in next generation broadband infrastructure in the region: “Going forward we want to see all the region having access to super-fast broadband so that all our businesses can compete on an equal footing.”

EREBUS has been set up in response to the Regional Economic Strategy (RES) which stated that the region needed higher speed broadband to remain competitive, attract new business, retain existing businesses and meet business requirements.

Speeds of up to 40 megabits per second (Mb/s) will initially be available to more than 130,000 homes and businesses in the region, and to 500,000 customers in the UK as a whole, with the prospect of them rising to 60Mb/s. These speeds are more than ten times those experienced now by most UK households. The next locations, serving a further million homes and businesses, will be announced in the autumn.

In addition to the provision of infrastructure it is vital that businesses are equipped with the knowledge and skills to use it to their advantage.  Many of the region’s businesses, SMEs in particular, have yet to exploit fully the benefits that ICT can bring.  EEDA’s takeITon programme is designed to give businesses access to specialised high quality and independent ICT expertise to show them how IT could help them individually improve their performance.  For more information visit www.takeiton.org.uk

Peter McCarthy-Ward, East of England regional director for BT and an EEDA board member, said:

“Super-fast broadband is essential to this region’s future so it is great to announce this initial set of locations. Once again, the East of England is at the forefront of one of the most important projects to take place in recent years. It will play a vital role in the UK’s future as a knowledge-based economy.

“The wider industry will now be able to plan ahead as we will be making our services available on a wholesale basis. This approach will benefit customers as there will undoubtedly be fierce competition for their business.”

BT’s local network business, Openreach, will make the fibre-based services available in early 2010 to nearly 23,000 homes and businesses in Hemel Hempstead, nearly 24,000 in St Albans, more than 20,000 in Watford, nearly 21,000 in Chelmsford, more than 23,000 in Luton and more than 20,000 in the Luton suburb of Leagrave. 

The new high-speed links will give customers enough speed to run multiple bandwidth-hungry applications including High Definition (HD) movies, HD video conferencing and data downloads.

Steve Robertson, chief executive of Openreach, said: “We have worked very closely with industry, development agencies and local authorities to choose these sites and I would like to thank everyone who has worked with us to make this happen. We are in discussion with others so expect similar announcements in the months to come.”

• Download full press release   (DOC 172KB)

Related Programmes

• Business Support
• Science, Innovation and High-level Skills
• Partnerships, Advocacy and Communications