Strabane SMEsset to benefit

At a meeting of the new Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Services Transformation Committee on Monday (September 8) it was agreed to extend the ‘SuperConnected Derry’ project right across the Strabane area.

Councillor Gary Middleton welcomed the move, stating: “Many of the public buildings within the Strabane area will now be identified to enable public Wifi access.

“This will benefit people from right across the community, allowing people to carry out activities online whilst availing of council facilities.”

As well as rolling out free wireless access in Council facilities such as leisure centres the programme also includes a voucher system to make broadband more affordable to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Mr Middleton said: “The voucher scheme, which is also available through the Super connected city programme, valued between £100 and £3000, will enable many small businesses in the to avail of the ultrafast broadband technology.

“There is also a Wireless Concession element of the programme. This aims to provide Wifi access in areas where there is high volumes of people, such as the city centre, where demand for high capacity wireless access is greatest.

“This programme has proven a success in the Londonderry area and I very much welcome the proposed rollout in the new area.”

The scheme’s genesis was in the London Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s launch of the National Broadband Strategy: ‘Britain’s Superfast Broadband Future’ in December 2010.

The strategy set out the UK Government’s vision for broadband in the UK, which is to ensure the UK has the best Superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015.

In October 2013 Derry City Council received a Letter of Offer confirming £2.2 million by way of grant for the SuperConnected Cities Programme.