Faculty of Science and Technology

Representatives of InfoLab21 have taken part in the international broadband conference at Rheged in Penrith on 18th September 2010.

MP Rory Stewart is backing the Cumbrian community in their quest for broadband access; "Penrith and the Border communities are determined to get high-speed Next Generation broadband Access (NGA) for most people and a reliable 2MB connection for everyone by the end of 2012.

"This is vital for a constituency with a higher proportion of self-employed people than anywhere else in Britain. It will also be very important for us as the most sparsely populated constituency in England, with very poor access to many services."

Colin McLaughlin, Technology Transfer Manager at Infolab21 was at the event;

"The Penrith and the Border Broadband Conference was a very interesting event which brought together CEOs from large global providers and local community organisations to discuss the provision of next generation access across some of the most challenging terrain in the country.

"The conference was opened by the Hon Ed Vaizey who hinted that the Government would use legislation in order to open up access to existing public infrastructure, such as the CLEO (Cumbria and Lancashire Education Online) network, as well as the ducts, poles and other physical infrastructure that BT have in the region. The concept is to empower local communities so that they can go ahead and develop their own solutions."

InfoLab21's RuralConnect Living Lab team, Drs Keith Mitchell, Nick Race and Johnathan Ishmael, were also at the event. The Living Lab team have previously provided wireless broadband across the Lancashire village of Wray.

Colin was interviewed by Computer Weekly at the event for their online video (see link below).

A full account of the day can be found on the conference website below.

Thu 30 September 2010

Associated Links

• CLEO Cumbria and Lancashire Education Online
• Living Lab - RuralConnect Living Lab
• Penrith & The Border Broadband Conference - What happened at the conference.
• Video: Cumbria bids to be rural broadband champion - Colin McLaughlin, Technology Transfer Manager at InfoLab21 is interviewed at the Penrith and the Border Broadband conference.