Faster Broadband Connections Onstream

Customers of Belfast-based Rainbow Telecom are set to benefit from free superfast broadband.

The company is the first in Northern Ireland to state its pricing structure ahead of the roll-out of next generation superfast broadband by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, (DETI) due to be completed by May 2011.

Rainbow, one of Northern Ireland's largest independent telecoms company, said the move was designed to help local businesses save hundreds of pounds while improving the efficiency of their communications.

DETI aims to roll out Next Generation Superfast Broadband across Northern Ireland, with a target of reaching 85% of businesses in the next year. The first areas to benefit will be Bangor, Lisburn and the Balmoral area of south Belfast.

Eric Carson, Director of Rainbow, (pictured here with fellow Director, Martin Hamill) said: "New business customers can take advantage of broadband speeds of up to 24MB through our 39 exchanges throughout Northern Ireland.

"As soon as DETI rolls out Next Generation Broadband in each area we will upgrade customers to 40MB.

"Although the roll-out of the Next Generation Broadband Project means all operators can now provide the same superfast broadband speeds we are the only one offering it for free," he enthused.

"We want to help Northern Ireland businesses say goodbye to slow connection speeds and become more competitive.

"As a locally owned business employing 50 staff we know that in the current climate businesses are looking to make savings, hence our Free Superfast Broadband will make a big difference as well as improving the efficiency of their communications," he continued.

Rainbow has over 5,000 business customers throughout the UK and Ireland, including 33% of Northern Ireland's top 100 companies.

Superfast Broadband will allow communications providers like Rainbow to offer business customers greatly enhanced broadband speeds - allowing them to make use of the very latest on line applications and programmes in their business operations but Rainbow is the only company providing it for free.

(BMcC/GK)