AQW 42770/11-15


Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry


Tabled Date: 24/02/2015
Answered On Date: 04/03/2015
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment what additional support her Department can offer to businesses in the hospitality industry in rural areas to provide greater access to broadband services.


Answer:
My Department is currently implementing the Northern Ireland Broadband Improvement Project (NIBIP). The project is progressing according to schedule and by 31 December 2014 just over 17,500 homes and business premises across Northern Ireland had benefited from the improvements.
By project completion in December 2015, it is anticipated that improvements will have been delivered for at least 45,000 homes and businesses across Northern Ireland, resulting in the provision of basic wire-line broadband services of at least 2 Megabits per second in areas that previously had no service and improvements in the availability of superfast fixed-line broadband services (24 Megabits per second or higher) in areas where choice is poor or broadband speeds are low.
In addition, my Department has just signed a contract with BT for the Superfast Roll-out Programme Phase 2 (SRP2) project, which seeks to further increase the coverage of superfast broadband services across Northern Ireland by 2017.
Business premises, within the Belfast and Londonderry Council area, who meet the eligibility criteria at https://www.connectionvouchers.co.uk/superconnected-cities/
can apply for vouchers up to the value £3,000, to cover the cost of high speed broadband installation from the Super-connected Cities Programme, managed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
This Programme is being extended to include other council areas. This presents an opportunity for our new Super-Councils to apply for a voucher scheme, similar to that which exists in the Belfast and Londonderry Council areas.
My Department facilitated an information event on 23 February 2015 to provide council representatives with further details.