Business broadband upgrade for Nottingham

Nottinghamshire companies will soon see improvements to their business broadband after it was announced a £20 million scheme is to be extended.

The Better Broadband for Nottinghamshire (BBfN) deal is expected to bring faster internet speeds to more than 15,000 homes and firms in the area.

Diana Meale, chair of Nottinghamshire County Council's economic development committee, explained that the deal will now run through until 2018.

She described BBfN's expansion as "one of the largest and most ambitious infrastructure projects carried out in Nottinghamshire".

Ms Meale added: Next-generation broadband enables businesses to compete on the international stage."

Slow and unreliable business broadband can cause major problems for companies, who may fall behind their rivals as a result of not being able to make the most of key 21st century trends such as digital marketing and ecommerce.

Steve Henderson, BT's regional director for next-generation access, added that tens of thousands of homes and companies in the Nottinghamshire region have already been given access to faster broadband as a result of the BBfN scheme.

He added: "This has made a huge difference to the way people use the internet at home and through the services local businesses can provide."

Improving business broadband was one of the key pledges made in the Conservative Party manifesto ahead of this month's general election.

David Cameron promised that if his party won a majority at the election they would deliver superfast broadband coverage to 95 per cent of the UK by 2017.

The Conservatives also stated that they would aim to make the UK a "world leader" in the development of 5G networks over the course of the next parliament.

Businesses looking to move services into the cloud should evaluate the performance of their existing network and consider setting up a leased line or MPLS network.

(Image: Kings Sutton)