NorthernNet broadband network to link region's creatives

The Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) and quango The Northern Way yesterday announced more details of the NorthernNet project, which has seen a high-speed telecoms network constructed across Yorkshire, the North East and the North West.
The aim of the network is to enable companies from the North West and beyond to take advantage of MediaCity, which is being built in Salford. The BBC is moving five departments, including BBC Children's, to MediaCityUK in Salford in 2011 and the corporation has pledged to commission work from production companies throughout the north.
Companies will be able to use the network to transfer videos and other large files which they would struggle to send through the existing telecommunications network. Businesses can connect directly to NorthernNet or can use it on a pay-as-you-go basis at a network of Media Access Bureaus.
There are 13 bureaus up and running, including those at FACT and Liverpool Innovation Park in Liverpool, and at Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus.
The North, and Liverpool in particular, has been described as a "digital desert" by some analysts who say that slow broadband speeds are damaging the region's business competitiveness. NorthernNet's backers hope this new system will allow local firms to make up ground.
North West minister Phil Woolas said: "The North West has the potential to be at the forefront of the digital revolution as it was in the first Industrial Revolution but it is vital that businesses of all sizes are able to grasp the opportunities that it brings.
"One of the challenges is for small and medium sized enterprises to be able to access high-speed broadband and I am delighted that through the NorthernNET project they will be able to do just that."
The infrastructure project received £9.4m of Northern Way funding and £2.27m from the NWDA. The Northern Way is also investing £3.4m in the NorthernNET Innovation and Collaboration Programme to encourage companies to use the system.
NWDA chairman Robert Hough said: "NorthernNet will help to break down technology barriers and allow our digital and creative businesses to interact and collaborate at exceptional speed, as if they were working on the same computer in the same office.
"Large file sizes will no longer be a hindrance to collaborative working either and companies right across the north can benefit from this infrastructure to compete and grow.
"We know that MediaCityUK will be a site of global importance in the digital and creative sector and now this joined-up network will spread that impact across the north of England."