It has been announced that Bournemouth will become the site of the UK’s first 100Mbps broadband networks. The news was released by H2O networks and they have pointed to the fact that the program already has the support of businesses and local residents. This is a great boost to the local economy in Bournemouth and it is being referred to as a fibre city. The upgrades will run across a fibre optic network and testing is to start in March.

Not only will it be the UK’s next generation speeds, but it is also set to be the largest activity of its kind across the whole of Europe. It is predicted to exceed the £30 million that has already been sunk into the project but it is felt that it is a worthwhile investment. H2O have devised a system of applying the fibre optics within the sewer system.

The commitment to the project has been huge and over 5000 individuals and organisations have signed up for the project since September 2008.

The committed parties will benefit from a fully free support and access to the service but this will only last for the duration of the H2O trial. The costs for the service are not yet known but it is predicted that they will be quite high initially. Although costs could be high, the service will help businesses maintain and grow their competitiveness and will also offer a massive surge in use of Internet services such as IPTV. It is believed that it will not be fully implemented until 2010 and the next location for such a project could be a city in Scotland.

This news comes after Vodafone has announced that it has its sites on the future with its UK mobile broadband service. They have been testing 16Mbps speeds and will be keeping an eye on the next speeds with HSPA+ and 28Mbps speeds. While not as fast as 100Mbps, it will make the best mobile broadband service in the UK even better!