| Posted: Thursday 5th February 2004 by
Sam |
BT have been chosen by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment to provide Northern Ireland with 100% broadband coverage by 2005, according to an article by BBC News.
The contract was put up for tender in July 2003 and attracted 27 bidders. Enterprise Minister Ian Pearson said; "...BT offers the best prospect of securing a value for money service for the people and businesses of Northern Ireland.". They aim to make this the first region with 100% coverage.
There are currently only 60 enabled exchanges out of 191 in Northern Ireland, although 18 are due to be able at some point in the near future. This means that if BT go down the ADSL route, which they almost certainly will, there will be 113 additional exchanges to be enabled.
One interesting target that was orignally set was that "There should be 100% broadband access for all households and businesses by the end of 2005." Due to nature of ADSL not being available on all lines connected to the exchange, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that BT have additional plans to overcome such problems - such as some wireless deployment. |