Businesses and householders in a Co Antrim city are on route for the next step along the communications highway.

There is to be an acceleration of a major, £1.5bn investment programme to bring super-fast fibre-based broadband to the UK - with Lisburn named as one of the 69 exchange areas that will be upgraded.

The city is to enjoy a boost with fibre-based access services.

BT's investment programme will make 'superfast services' available to up to 14,000 homes and businesses in the Lisburn area by next summer.

Chris Clark, Chief Executive Officer, BT in Northern Ireland said: "We're really delighted that we are able to rapidly build on our first announcement in March when BT selected the Balmoral Exchange in Belfast in phase one of its UK-wide roll out plans.

"Fibre-based broadband is the future for Northern Ireland so we're accelerating the pace of our investment programme to support such services.

"A world class network infrastructure brings immense opportunities and benefits to Northern Ireland - helping to enrich the lives of consumers and communities, giving our businesses a competitive edge as well as supporting the public sector's Programme for Government," he said, noting that BT is "committed to offering other services providers equal access to its network" which he said would help consumers and businesses to benefit from a highly competitive market.

The technology that will be deployed in Northern Ireland by BT is called 'fibre to the cabinet'.

This will enable BT and all other communications providers to deliver broadband speeds of up to 40Mbit/s, potentially rising to 60Mbit/s in the future.

The technology will also deliver the fastest "upstream" speeds available in Northern Ireland today, boasting speeds of up to 10Mbit/s.

These speeds are crucial for consumers and businesses who want to upload large files such as video and complex graphics over broadband.

The faster download speeds will give customers more than enough speed to run multiple bandwidth-hungry applications at the same time.

This new technology will allow small businesses in the Lisburn area to access affordable super fast broadband speeds currently being used by very large companies.

It will facilitate greater collaboration across locations between customers and suppliers, as well as improving the flexibility for remote and home working.

Welcoming the announcement, Ann McGregor, Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce said: "It is great to see continued investment in a world class communications infrastructure in Northern Ireland, particularly in the tough economic conditions in which we now operate.

"High speed broadband services will bring tremendous benefits to our business community and I welcome BT's efforts to ensure that Northern Ireland remains at the leading edge of the communications revolution."

(BMcC/JM)