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Edinburgh to host next-generation broadband conference
The city will stage the first of NextGen Events' series of UK-wide roadshows.
The event in the Scottish capital is set to take place on May 12th 2011 and will be supported by ScotlandIS - the country's trade body for the information and communication technology industry - and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE).
A number of international keynote speakers have been lined up for the meeting, including Christer Mattsson from Swedish research organisation Acreo, NetAdmin's Henrik Halvorsen and Iain Perry, a Glaswegian who works for one of Sweden's leading network operators.
Polly Purvis, the director of ScotlandIS, has welcomed the decision to choose Edinburgh to stage the opening conference in the series.
"We are determined that Scotland will lead the way in making sure that we have the best possible infrastructure for innovation and enterprise, for economic growth and for community development," she said.
Marit Hendriks, programme director at NextGen Events, stated the number of cities that competed to host one of the expos is evidence of the current high levels of demand for next-generation broadband.
He added: "The long-delayed and now urgent UK-wide transformation of local digital access networks adds up to the biggest business-enabling infrastructure project since the switchover from DC to AC electricity."
The entire programme of NextGen events will be sponsored by Fujitsu, which earlier this week announced a major new investment in fibre optic broadband that will see the technology brought to five million properties in rural parts of Britain.
Rival internet service providers (ISPs) TalkTalk and Virgin Media have already confirmed they will use the infrastructure on a wholesale basis to offer advanced internet connections to residents and businesses that are currently out of reach of their networks.
Fujitsu said the project will offer ISPs a "groundbreaking and innovative alternative" to BT Openzone.