E-commerce scheme to boost regions' broadband capacity

The Government's e-commerce package will result in £700 million (€888.8 million) worth of broadband capacity being "rolled out to the regions", the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, has said.

No one must be left behind in the "dot.com" revolution, and there must be "no digital divide", the Minister warned yesterday, when she opened a call centre and software development facility for the British-based Cedar Group in Castlebar, Co Mayo.

Yesterday marked the closing date for the Government's call on £60 million for infrastructural proposals under the National Development Plan. Ms O'Rourke said that £150 million of the £700 million for e-commerce was being provided by the Government, and would represent investment of up to 200,000 kilometres of broadband capability around the State.

The Government's call for satellite technologies to extend bandwidth would provide digital opportunities in "the Castlebars, the Belmullets, the Crossmolinas and the Ballinas," she added.

So far, the Global Crossing broadband contract had been agreed to connect the Republic to 36 European cities and the US. Some 13 contracts had also been signed to bring high-speed Internet capable networks to more than 120 towns and villages throughout the State.

The new Castlebar centre for Cedar Group plc is a subsidiary of the British company and expects to employ 250 people.