THERE was good news for Tavistock businesses this week as British Telecom reduced the number of on-line registrations of interest required for Broadband installation in the town.

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 in the town.

The Tavistock exchange has already received 228 requests, needing just 72 more to achieve the target.

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

l The potential to download information at speeds of up to ten 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 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

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