The competition, was part of the EEDA's Demand Broadband campaign, designed to speed up internet access to rural sites and help small businesses compete with those in metropolitan settings. With its scattered population, and few large urban centres, the east of England has many communities that broadband suppliers have said it is not commercially viable to connect. Groups of individuals from villages and companies were invited to apply for part of a £2.5 million fund to connect their communities to broadband. The winners were selected from 87 final entries in three categories - larger settlements, large villages/small towns and smaller villages - across the six EEDA counties. More than 2,000 people requested applications for the competition. Anglia TV's Graham Creelman, chairman of Living East, said the competition's design meant that even unsuccessful bids would still provide EEDA with a huge amount of detail about demand across the region. The information received from all the communities who entered the EEDA competition will be passed to 50 broadband suppliers which have registered with the agency. Mr Creelman said: "This is exactly how we hoped the competition would work to speed up the supply of broadband." By the end of the year, according to Mason Communications, 84 per cent of the region's population will be able to access broadband. Two years ago, it was predicted that just 63% of the eastern counties would have access to high-speed internet connections.

July 2003