Posted: 06th Feb, 2004 By: MarkJ
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment's (DETI) has hinted that BT is now the favoured operator for a major Northern Ireland contract. The deal is designed to ensure that every household and business in N.I has broadband by 2005:
The goal of the contract is to make Northern Ireland the first region in the UK to have 100 per cent broadband coverage, offering a minimum of 512kbps to households and businesses by the end of 2005.
The (DETI) is now to enter into further negotiations with BT to finalise the details of the contract. Minister for Enterprise Trade and Investment Ian Pearson said that he expected these final negotiations to be concluded before the end of February.
Although the DETI had init ially considered accepting a figure lower than 100 percent availability, a spokesperson for the DETI told ElectricNews.Net that the contract with BT would provide 100 percent coverage for the region. Those areas where ADSL is not technically viable would be covered by other technologies, such as wireless broadband. The exact mix of ADSL, wireless and other technologies is not specified. The spokesperson said that the DETI "hadn't been prescriptive."More @
ElectricNews.