Business - broadband campaign
IT & Telecommunications - driving digital britain
Maidstone is well served by its communications infrastructure.
The wholesale market for local broadband services has been
deregulated, encouraging competition between Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) and in March 2010 BT completed the roll out of
21CN (21st Century Networking) to 100% of the Maidstone exchanges,
improving internet performance and stimulating new service
provision, putting Maidstone ahead of many of its rivals in the
south east.
Broadband service availability
BT are also rolling out their new fibre optic broadband service (BT
Infinity) in Maidstone, with download speeds of up to 40MB in
Bearsted and Blue Bell Hill from March 2011. Maidstone already
benefits from the following business and consumer broadband
services:
| Service Type |
Primary Provider/s |
| ADSL/ADSL
Max: |
BT Wholesale |
| SDSL: |
BT Wholesale, a service providing high speed upload as well
as download speeds, targeted at businesses with
high data or bandwidth requirements (eg teleworkers
connecting to a server). |
| LLU services: |
Six ISPs provide independent network services: AOL,
O2/Be, C&W Orange, Sky, TalkTalk |
| Cable: |
Virgin Media |
| Wireless: |
Orbital/VFast |
WiMAX trials
The UK’s first live end- to-end 2.5GHz Mobile WiMAX trials were
carried out in Maidstone in 2008, focussing upon public safety,
CCTV monitoring, building inspection and workforce mobility. The
trial was carried out by Bluenowhere, a member of the Mobile WiMAX
Acceleration Group (M-WAG), in collaboration with Maidstone Borough
Council and Kent Fire and Rescue Service.
In a 2008 research report commissioned by BT, Enterprise Nation
ranked Maidstone among the top 20 UK home-based business hotspots.
Continued investment in digital infrastructure will support this
important sector of the local economy.