THERE was good news for West Devon businesses this week as British Telecom reduced the number of on-line registrations of interest required for Broadband installation in Okehampton.
BT must be satisfied there is sufficient demand for the high-speed internet access before it upgrades the telephone exchange, and has lowered its registration ?trigger level? from 350 to 300.
Okehampton currently stands at 108 registrations, requiring a further 192 before installation will be considered.
Meanwhile, West Devon Borough Council is sending out almost 2,000 letters this week to businesses across the borough urging them to register their interest in the service.
Cllr Dennis Bater, who represents E-government on the council, said: ?West Devon is a place remote from the bigger business centres. The introduction of Broadband would allow faster and greater communication between businesses and their customers or partners.
?Broadband can immensely transform businesses, while retaining our local community character.
?Besides offering useful business resources it can also offer opportunities for training, recruiting, advertising, travel arrangement, and learning or using new skills.?
The advantages of Broadband include:
l Faster access to the World Wide Web, where you can find out about new opportunities, business partners or publish products and services
l The potential to download information at speeds of up to 10 times faster than a normal modem connection
l It may enable people to work from home and be connected to their office
l It allows you to use your phone and stay on line simultaneously
Nationally, the registration scheme has led to 13 exchanges being upgraded ? with work under way at a further 58.
More than 66 per cent of households are connected to the 1,132 exchanges now enabled by BT for Broadband.
Both business and domestic users can register their interest via their Internet Service Provider. More information on registering is now readily available at http://www.bt.com/broadband">www.bt.com/broadband
Help with registration and useful links about Broadband can also be found at a new section
of the council?s website: http://www.westdevon.gov.uk/broadband">www.westdevon.gov.uk/broadband
Currently there are remote areas of West Devon which have not been allocated a trigger number by BT and the Council wants to know the views of residents. E-mail your opinion to Pierre Morel at