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Leeds claims the lead in ultra-fast broadband

Posted by Gary Flood on Fri, 26/02/2010 - 11:09
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Leeds says it is one of the first UK cities to have access to high-speed Internet access, a move it's hoped will offer opportunities for the kind of business expansion based on ultra-fast broadband envisaged in the Government's 'Digital Britain' report.

The breakthrough consists in a so-called “Leeds-Centric” fibre-optic cable rollout, which means local businesses can get 100Mbps connectivity, up to ten times existing national averages, providing working efficiencies and cutting transfer time for large data users.

First users in the city are based in The Calls, a former warehouse district parallel to the river Aire and also former base of ISP Freeserve (now part of Orange), now home to a cluster of media and production houses. One company taking advantage is TV commercial post-production facility VTR North, which says it has seen the time taken to push one of its typical 500MB high-res files down the wire from 40 minutes to under two.

“Over the Christmas period we were working on campaigns that would have taken days with the old system but we could service clients in much quicker turnaround time with the faster broadband,” its head of VTR Patrick Coakley told PublicTechnology.Net.

“I can't say if we would hire more staff just on the back of this, but if we can expand our business as a result of being able to take on more work, we'd definitely look into it,” he added.

The line has been plumbed in by Leeds communications firm aql, which operates its own datacentres and network infrastructure, and has clients including Thames Water, Rightmove and Deutsche Bank. The firm says it plans to expand the service to hundreds of additional West Yorkshire businesses following a "cookie-cutter" model.

“This model allows many businesses to get a head start on their competitors, reaping the advantages of high-speed-working long before the delivery of the Digital Britain promise," claimed aql MD Adam Beaumont.

aql also hopes the new broadband may even entice UK businesses to re-locate to Leeds or for The Calls to become the 'Soho of the North' for media and creative firms.

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Leeds claims the lead in ultra-fast broadband

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