Business

Newry business park gets 1GB internet speeds for first time

From left, Colin Hanna, Newry & Mourne Enterprise Agency, Cllr Roisin Mulgrew and Thomas O'Hagan from B4B Telecoms
From left, Colin Hanna, Newry & Mourne Enterprise Agency, Cllr Roisin Mulgrew and Thomas O'Hagan from B4B Telecoms From left, Colin Hanna, Newry & Mourne Enterprise Agency, Cllr Roisin Mulgrew and Thomas O'Hagan from B4B Telecoms

A NEWRY business park has been connected to super fast broadband for the first time.

Firms at the WIN Business Park will be able to access high speed internet using 'fibre to the premises' technology.

It follows a five-year campaign by Newry and Mourne Enterprise Agency.

Beforehand, broadband speed at the park, which has 70 tenants, was restricted at around 13 megabytes per second (Mbps) with up loads just 1Mbps.

Now than can access 1GB per second.

Other businesses in the city can access speeds of up to 80Mbps using conventional fibre connections from cabinets.

Newry and Mourne Enterprise Agency used a Super Connected Cities voucher to enlist Belfast firm B4B Telecoms to provide a solution.

Colin Hanna from the agency said: "Fast broadband speed is now effectively a utility service, as vital to small businesses as electricity and water.

"Unfortunately the Newry-wide fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) scheme did not reach our business park so our SMEs were being left behind.

"Working with B4B we identified sufficient numbers of tenant companies who needed faster broadband and we went down the route of the Super Connected Cities Voucher Scheme which opened up new possibilities."

Thomas O'Hagan from B4B added: “More than 20 businesses in the park indicated their willingness to sign up to the scheme and that gave us the opening to explore the fibre to the premises broadband solution.

"This means the park now has access to 1GBps services, with many tenants choosing to avail of the 100Mbps download, surpassing that available on FTTC."