KESGRAVE: Super-fast broadband will be trialled in Suffolk early in the New Year as BT and the Government bid to speed up internet connections.

BT will be carrying out a technical trial in Kesgrave to test fibre broadband speeds of one Gigabit (GB).

It said the trial will see “some of the fastest residential speeds over fibre broadband anywhere in the world today” and would help create the best super-fast broadband network in Europe.

The trial is intended to demonstrate the maximum speed capabilities of BT’s Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) product, which could potentially deliver speeds 10 times faster than current average to two thirds of the UK by 2015.

The company is also set to announce 40 rural market towns which will be upgraded to fibre broadband by late 2011 or early 2012. Those towns will be announced in January.

That �2.5 billion scheme could receive a further �830 million Government investment to extend fibre to up to 90% of the UK.

A BT spokesman said: “The purpose of the (Kesgrave) technical trial is to demonstrate the maximum speed capabilities of BT’s Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) product - namely its ability to deliver downstream speeds of 1Gb/s and upstream speeds of 400Mb/s to businesses and consumers, subject to the appropriate network conditions and customer equipment. “The trial will test the delivery of broadband speeds 10 times faster than BT’s current FTTP product, which is set to launch commercially next year.”

Olivia Garfield, BT’s director of strategy, said: “We intend to continually push the limits of our super-fast broadband programme in terms of the technology and the geography.

“While everyday consumers don’t require Gigabit speeds today, it’s important that we test the maximum speed capabilities of our fibre broadband product to ensure that it is fully future proofed.

“Furthermore, by evolving our deployment model for fibre we have been able to push the geographical boundaries of super-fast broadband. It allows us to build a commercial case for rolling out fibre to selected towns in rural areas to satisfy the growing appetite for faster broadband speeds.”

Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, said: “A super-fast broadband network is vital to the country’s economic growth and the development of our high tech and creative industries, as well as the reform of public services.

“BT’s fantastic range of measures would, on top of the �830 million the Government is investing, go a huge way to delivering our ambition for the UK to have the best broadband system in Europe by 2015.”