It looks as though the roll out of fibre optic broadband will be hastened if regional businesses are able to unite and commit to support, after the heads of businesses in Dorset announced that they would be backing plans within their area.

A local Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Tourism which encompasses leaders from around Weymouth and Portland has revealed that it will be firmly in favour of speeding along the proposed installation of fibre optic cable broadband, which had been intended to coincide with the London Olympics in 2012.

This new deal will of course allow the fibre optic network to be retained after the Olympics has come and gone and businesses will supply the custom necessary to ensure its continued financial viability.

A local newspaper said that there was still time for businesses and home owners to pledge their support for the plans via a survey, which will be open until the end of the month.

Nigel Reed, who presides over the Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview that the most significant goal they are aiming to achieve is the retention of fibre optic technology that will link local telephone exchanges. However, any lack of demand could mean that telecoms companies would be hesitant about offering high speed broadband after the Olympics conclude in 2012.

Mr Reed also confirmed that he and his fellow businesspeople would be backing the plans in their area, seeing it as one of the key benefits of hosting the Olympic games.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard added that “businesses can really benefit from fibre optic broadband connections with BT business broadband packages and those of other providers expected to be vastly improved in the wake of the fibre optic broadband roll out.”

Although the government and the major telecommunications networks are pumping money into the future of broadband in the UK, not everyone is relying on support from the public sector or large private organisations. In Dorset and Cumbria, two new schemes are being put in motion with local backing in order to ensure that businesses and residents in these regions can keep up with the rest of the country and get high speed broadband.

In Dorset it was revealed earlier this week that provider South West Internet (SWI) was seeking funding to help initiate new plans that would see an upgrade to its current broadband network, allowing for better coverage and faster speeds. At the moment it mostly offers businesses and consumers broadband via an extensive wireless network, but it hopes to use fibre optic technology to offer even faster speeds of 100Mbps or more.

SWI is calling on local enterprises to help support its plans and most will consider it an investment in the future of their business. A trio of local councils are also adding funding to the project, although input from the local business community will be necessary to ensure that it is a success.

In Cumbria local councillors are pushing for a new fibre optic broadband trial to be carried out. The trial will hopefully use money from the Northwest Regional Development Agency, which currently has the means to support pilot schemes in two different areas of the region.

A spokesperson for the county council voiced some concern that without action it was possible that Cumbria could become overlooked during the implementation of new broadband technologies. It was also suggested that with high speed connections available, the region would be far more attractive to businesses, which would cause faster growth in the local economy and help to drive new BT business broadband packages and those from other providers.

2010 is set to be a good year for businesses around Wales after news that BT is planning to roll out two high-speed broadband technologies across the country emerged. BT Business MD Nigel Stagg said that the availability of ADSL connections capable of up to 24Mbps download speeds should become widespread next year and added that the 40Mbps fibre optic connections that BT is installing as part of its 21st Century Network upgrades are also going to benefit business users.

24Mbps ADSL connections are already available in Bangor and Caernarfon and Mr Stagg indicated that business customers in other towns such as Wrexam should also be eligible for a faster connection for their enterprises.

The most important of the new broadband technologies that BT has promised to offer Welsh business customers is fibre optic connectivity. BT is using Fibre-To-The-Cabinet (FTTC), which will allow customers to continue to use their existing copper land line telephone connections to provide the last mile of connectivity whilst the rest of the work is performed by a fibre optic network.

In the first instance, business broadband customers in Wales should expect download speeds of up to 40Mbps and upload speeds of 2-15Mbps if they sign up for a fibre optic broadband package from BT. The download speeds are set to increase as time passes, with a target of up to 60Mbps for FTTC customers in the near future.

In the first half of 2010 BT plans to roll out FTTC at 100 different telephone exchanges around the UK, with a small proportion allocated to Wales.

Simple Broadband`s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard commented that BT’s plans to improve the availability of high-speed broadband for businesses everywhere was “an exciting prospect and one that should significantly drive recovery and growth over the next decade.”

BT has recently announced some fairly significant developments which will please shareholders in the firm as well as business and home broadband customers around the country.

The first piece of news highlights the fact that BT has just passed the five million customer mark for its broadband service. It sent the lucky 5 millionth customer, a chip shop worker from Glasgow, to see the Winter Olympics to mark the milestone which assures BT’s place as the UK largest fixed line broadband provider.

The second exciting development came when BT announced that it was currently ahead of schedule for the roll out of the latest fibre optic broadband technology. The intention now is to make fibre optic broadband available to 10 million customers around the UK in time for the 2012 Olympics and so far the £1.5 billion project is moving along swiftly.

In the last two years BT revealed that it has gained the custom of over one million new business and home broadband users and a spokesperson for the company said that the growth in the number of business customers signing up for broadband was set to continue as higher speeds become available across a wider area.

BT said that with the current work rate it would be able to connect 4 million customers to the internet using the new fibre optic network by the end of 2010 and the pressures of being official communications partner and sponsor of the 2012 Olympics are clearly helping BT to stay on task and stick to its promises.

BT CEO Ian Livingstone said that they expected to gain support from the government in order to ensure that businesses could have access to high speed broadband connections in time for 2012.

It is clear that by the end of next year people looking to compare business broadband packages will be faced with a much wider selection of high speed connections than those that are currently available.

Although the current range of BT business broadband packages has allowed far more businesses to connect to the internet at high speeds and enjoy the various perks of doing business online, experts predict that even bigger improvements will be instigated by further technology developments.

The various functions and applications of existing IT systems used by businesses around the UK will mutate as next-generation broadband networks are rolled out.

The biggest change is going to come when cloud computing services and virtualisation of server environments allow for businesses to move most of their IT services away from on-site solutions to remote, third party systems which are far more cost-effective.

BT’s managing director Bill Murphy spoke out about the benefits of cloud computing for businesses in a recent interview, but also said that IT firms themselves would have to adapt their methods to cope with business broadband technology.

Mr Murphy explained that the cost of the software which facilitates business in many sectors could be set to fall as BT business broadband packages of the future would significantly change the way in which solutions were delivered.

It is fibre optic cabling that most industry experts consider to be the most important development in the future of business broadband. Some networks in the largest UK cities are already offering speeds of up to 100Mbps for early-adopting enterprises and it is these speeds that will increase the viability of cloud computing and virtualisation.

This significant leap in download speeds that most business and home broadband users are expected to experience in the coming years will require many to completely alter their perceptions as to what is possible. Faster internet connections open up a whole host of exciting and profitable possibilities which will only continue to grow in significance as the future broadband technologies become more common.

Millions of pounds are being invested in the broadband infrastructure for Northern Ireland in order to offer much faster connections to home and business broadband customers around the country.

A total of over £48 million will be injected into the industry over the next year and a half, with the promise of improved speeds for both rural and urban customers.

Businesses who want to take advantage of high speed connections are in luck, as the plans include the provision of a 10Mbps minimum download speed for urban businesses, whilst a 2Mbps minimum is expected for rural businesses.

Completion of the improvements is targeted for mid-2011 and half of the money is being invested by British Telecom after it won the contract.

The remaining money is being provided from various public sector sources, including some from the European Union.

A spokesperson for the government said on announcing the plans that the money would not only enable faster broadband for all residents of Northern Ireland, regardless as to their location, but would also create up to 1000 new jobs as a result of the improved broadband infrastructure.

Cheap cable broadband using fibre optic technology will be key to the success of the investment scheme, although 166 telephone exchanges are being upgraded and various wireless broadband hotspots are also going to allow for wider coverage.

Many are pleased that the investment will help those in rural areas, where broadband connections are traditionally sluggish or non-existent. The inclusive nature of the plans is being heralded as a step in the right direction that other areas of the UK would do well to follow if growth and productivity are to be improved.

BT Chief Executive Ian Livingston said that cheap cable broadband provided using fibre optic technology would continue to be integral to increased speeds and wider availability of broadband in the future.

A broadband expert has revealed that it is likely the next generation of broadband will allow for vast improvements to the infrastructure of UK businesses, with internet solutions replacing current practices to allow for growth and future prosperity.

However, Roger Darlington of the Communications Consumer Panel told the audience of a seminar on the future of broadband internet that he was unsure how home and business broadband customers would actually drive the uptake of the next-generation technologies.

Darlington noted that detailed analysis was needed in order to assess just how the networking technologies, which will allow faster connections for a wider spectrum of businesses, will be used once they are established.

Darlington was speaking at the Westminster eForum last week. The forum brought into question the contentious issues of the government subsidy of high speed broadband networks, asking why so much money was being pumped in when little was known about the actual use of such an infrastructure.

It was made clear that although development of broadband in the future was necessary, the fact that only three quarters of UK properties were eligible for an internet connection of any kind should be considered to be the most important issue to address with current Government funding.

More controversy surrounding key broadband providers arose last week after it emerged that the BT chairman had been supplied with a high speed connection in his home village whilst every other resident and local business had been unable to access even the most basic broadband service.

Despite the fact that new BT business broadband packages offer faster speeds and wider availability, many isolated business owners feel that they are being left behind as most of the new developments first occur in heavily populated areas.

Despite the evolution of multiple forms of online communication which improve upon the principally text-based capabilities of emails, a leading business broadband expert has predicted that emails will continue to form the backbone of commerce over the next decade.

This news comes after a report from broadband provider TalkTalk suggested that email usage was taking a downturn that would eventually relegate it to the annals of history.

Mickael Remond, CEO of a major messaging solutions firm, cited the universal availability and versatility of email as key to its continued use.

Remond was adamant that email would continue to be important to business broadband users because of its ability to target multiple recipients and provide a proven logging system to allow easy reference to older messages.

Although the TalkTalk survey revealed that 51% of low level businesspeople used email as their main form of communication, in ten years time the shape of online interaction would be very different.

Social networking and instant messaging are slated as being the next big thing in business by the report and so the adoption of BT business broadband packages to reflect this change could result in very different tariffs and functions in the future.

However, this is obviously a point open to debate and as email is so deeply entrenched in most businesses it could still be used as a formal and lasting form of communication, whilst social networking and instant messaging represents quick, casual and disposable means of conducting a business dialogue.

Whether future BT business broadband packages will include facilities for business social networks or intercompany instant messaging remains to be seen, but the continued importance of broadband itself within the business world is assured.