Posted: 03rd Nov, 2011 By: MarkJ


The
Northern Ireland Executive has recently awarded
£215,432 from its £1.9 million
NI Broadband Fund, which is co-financed with EU money, to help
North West Electronics extend its existing fixed wireless ( Wi-Fi ) internet access network to cover more rural areas.
Northern Ireland is one of the strongest parts of the UK for broadband coverage, with BT revealing this morning that its superfast broadband roll-out in the region has now reached roughly three-quarters coverage (
600,000 premises passed); but NI still has isolated rural areas.
N.I Enterprise Minister, Arlene Foster, said:
"This investment is continued evidence of my Department’s commitment to ensuring that all areas of Northern Ireland have access to superfast broadband services.
There are areas of Northern Ireland where a fixed line solution is not possible for technical and commercial reasons. The Broadband Fund enables local businesses to demonstrate how a range of technologies can deliver broadband services to rural users."
North West Electronics will now extend its Wi-Fi network to business and residential customers in the
Dungannon,
Larne,
Antrim,
Fermanagh,
Down,
Armagh,
Ballymena and Newry and
Mourne areas.
The effort, which will make use of the
Project Kelvin infrastructure to use fibre to increase speeds to the areas of need, is due to be
completed by March 2012 and should deliver download speeds of "
at least 10Mbps" (Megabits per second). Credits to Thinkbroadband and
Banbridge Leader for spotting the news, which was announced last month.