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Northern Ireland commits extra £500k to rural broadband
The money will be spent on bringing faster internet speeds to rural areas.
Potential project applicants are being urged to come forward and stake their claims for a share of the cash, with the bidding process set to run until August 12th 2011.
The money has been made available under the £1.9 million Northern Ireland Broadband Fund (NIBF), which is partly financed by the European Regional Development Fund's Competitiveness Programme.
Enterprise minister Arlene Foster said one of the primary goals of the NIBF is to encourage businesses and other organisations to table ideas that are designed to help increase the coverage of fast broadband services in the country.
Northern Ireland's Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment has committed £890,000 to help complete seven broadband pilot projects since the fund was launched in August 2008.
Although she acknowledged that the process of bringing faster speeds to rural locations is "a challenge", Ms Foster insisted it is important the government continues to invest in the technology to ensure the country's broadband infrastructure is able to support the economy.
Commenting on the latest call for funding applicants, the politician added: "We hope to see a vibrant range of proposals which reflect a number of technologies.
"In line with UK national strategy, we would be particularly keen for proposals that clearly demonstrate an engagement with local communities to both identify specific rural areas where access to broadband has been a concern and secure support at local level for the solutions proposed."
Northern Ireland's urban areas are also set to see faster connection speeds, with BT announcing in January that its fibre optic broadband service will be available to every home and business in the city of Derry by this autumn.
Residents and businesses will be able to receive maximum download rates of 40Mbps once the work is finished.