A group of East Anglia MPs have attended a conference designed to boost the chances of their constituencies winning government money to improve broadband access and speeds.

The Suffolk Broadband Summit took place yesterday (April 6th 2011), having been organised by Waveney MP Peter Aldous, reports the East Anglian Daily Times. It was set up with the intention of strengthening their bid for Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) funding, which would be used to close the digital divide between urban and rural parts of the county.

Under its super-fast broadband plans, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has pledged to spend £530 million over the next four years in an effort to deliver improved internet services to areas not deemed commercially viable for investment by the private sector.

The opening up of the bidding process for £50 million of this funding was announced at the start of March by chancellor George Osborne.

Mr Aldous was joined at the talks by fellow politicians Dan Poulter, Tim Yeo and Therese Coffey, all of whom have thrown their support behind the Better Broadband for Suffolk campaign established by Andy Wood, the chairman of Choose Suffolk.

Other speakers at the event included Bill Murphy, BT's director of next-generation access and Robert Ling from BDUK - the body established as a delivery vehicle for the government's broadband policy.

Ahead of the summit, Mr Aldous insisted waiting for private sector firms to improve connections in the county is not an option.

"If we just leave this to the markets, they will concentrate on easy-to-reach areas which tend to be around main towns," he said.

"The government is allocating money to provide full comprehensive coverage and bids can be put forward to tap into that money. Choose Suffolk has worked up a proposal which will be part of the bid submitted to the government later this month."

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