Bournemouth gets 100Mbps broadband trial

The first 30 households in Bournemouth will be connected to the new Fibrecity 100 megabits per second (Mbps) broadband network by the end of March, it has emerged.

Residents and businesses in the town's BH10 and BH11 postcode areas will get access to the fibre-optic network which delivers superfast broadband speeds.

The £30 million network upgrade will also give residents and business owners access to next-generation services, such as VoIP, IPTV and remote security.

Fibrecity provider H2O Networks said that it expects to complete the work by 2010 and that is also planning a similar trial in the Scottish city of Dundee.

Adrian Crook, commercial lead for Fibrecity, told the Bournemouth Daily Echo: "This is an amazing opportunity for the residents and businesses of Bournemouth to connect to 100Mbps fibre."

"By doing so they will have the choice to benefit from the next generation services that will revolutionise the way we communicate," he added.

H2O engineers will feed fibre-optic cable through the Bournemouth sewer system, which means the network can be laid 90 per cent faster with minimal disruption to the road surfaces.