IT Infrastructure

North East England spends more per head of the population on broadband provision than any other region in the country.

During 2004 the region introduced an Internet Protocol exchange which provides a cost effective choice of links for the businesses and organisations based in the region via a “high capacity backhaul” connection to the world’s largest volume Internet exchange at Telehouse in London.  This will provide telecommunications users with direct access to very high capacity at lower cost than other current sources providing savings and improvements in efficiency.

• The North East can offer the lowest backhaul costs of any UK region to London, Continent and USA
• International standard data storage and secure disaster recovery capability
• Designated e-location sites pre-equipped with fibre-optic communications networks ideal for contact centre investment
• Every North East community and 98% of the population have access to broadband and ADSL services via the One North East exchange enablement project
• The North East is the only region outside London where every telephone exchange has broadband capability
• BT, cable and satellite technology combine to deliver the vision to give the North East one of the highest take-up growth rates of broadband in the country 

There is facility for further expansion of broadband facilities throughout the region which will maintain the North East as a region with internationally competitive capacity to handle data exchange and storage.