Super-fast broadband to link 'virtual villages' from next year

High-speed broadband services will be used to trial a collection of 'virtual villages' that will offer users a series of unique services, reports the Times.

The plan is to be implemented by the Technology Strategy Board and will involve an IT procurement that the organisation plans to secure within the next few weeks.

Officials plan to pick two or three locations around the UK that already have a certain level of technical facilities and then to implement five years' worth of broadband upgrades within these virtual villages to see what facilities might work best on a wider scale in the coming years.

Nick Appleyard, lead technologist at the Technology Strategy Board, told the paper at London's Innovate 09: "It needs to be big enough to get statistically useful information out of it and we think that scale is a few thousand people, a small community."

Major internet service providers such as Virgin Media and BT are investing substantial sums in next-generation broadband networks that could help deliver more efficient VoIP solutions and faster download speeds.