The Colchester Borough Council in South East England (just above London) has given official approval to a new Digital Strategy that aims to blanket the town in a mix of superfast 40-50Mbps fixed line and 11Mbps Wi-Fi wireless broadband services over the next five years, which they hope will turn it into the country's first "High Speed Wireless Town".

A survey conducted last year found that the average internet download speed in Colchester was 4.2Mbps. In some rural areas of the borough, which are home to 33% of residents and 25% of businesses, current broadband speeds are 0.5-2Mbps.



The Council claims that it "will not have to make a financial investment in the project" but should benefit from a sustainable income through the provision of access to its street furniture, rooftops and ducting to enable the installation of micro aerials. Further income could also come from online sponsorship and advertising.

Wireless operator The Cloud (BSkyB) will take responsibility for turning the borough into an 11Mbps capable Digital Wireless Town, while Motorola and BriskNet will develop the High Speed Urban and Business Broadband solution. The project aims to help rural areas first.

The UK government wants 90% of "people in each local authority area" to be within reach of a superfast (25Mbps+) broadband ISP service by 2015, with the last 10% gaining a minimum service speed of at least 2Mbps.