Posted: 24th Sep, 2010 By: MarkJ

The
Communities Partnership Executive of North Dorset (CPEND), which identifies priorities for the related region based on the demands coming through local plans and consultations, has won £10k to help investigate ways of delivering faster broadband and "
super-fast"
fibre optic services to the area.
South Dorset already benefits from faster broadband services. The i3 Group ( Fibrecity ) is installing
100Mbps FTTH services in the coastal town of
Bournemouth, BT will lay a "
high capacity broadband connection to Portland" in time for the 2012 Olympics and other groups (e.g.
South West Internet) are also helping to deliver similar services.
All this has left the Northern half of Dorset feeling somewhat excluded, although in reality many parts of the county - especially rural areas - remain without fast broadband ISP services. As a result CPEND has begun calling for affected residents and businesses to get in contact.
CPEND Chairman, Mark Hebditch, told the Daily Echo newspaper: "If we can get users to tell us their broadband speed and why they need it to be faster, there would be a much stronger case for improving it here."
Consequently, locals are being asked to share their broadband experiences by calling
01258 489998 or emailing
office@dt11forum.org.uk. CPEND will then use this information to target areas with the greatest need, either through standard BT telephone exchange upgrades or fibre optic broadband deployments.
Back in July this year the
Dorset Chamber of Commerce & Industry conducted a survey (
here) of the county's businesses and found that 64% required a connection speed of more than 10Mb and 86% want to achieve this within the next year. The study also revealed that 39% of firms currently receive speeds of between 1-4Mbps, with 31% getting 5-8Mbps.