COMPUTER users in Bo'ness are set to benefit from an updated telephone exchange in Bo'ness.

The town's telephone service has been comprehensively updated in recent weeks to enable BT to offer broadband internet access to residents and businesses.

Exchange goes live on 8 June 2005

The exchange is due to go live on Wednesday, June 8, which will bring 100 per cent broadband availability to Falkirk local authority area.

Until now, only customers of cable television company Telewest have been able to access high-speed broadband services.

Much faster than dial-up

Broadband is much faster than the traditional dial-up internet service and is essential for businesses which rely on the internet to transfer large amounts of data quickly.

The Bo'ness exchange upgrade brings the technology within the reach of another 7,000 customers and means broadband is now available to 70,000 homes and businesses across the area.

Brendan Dick, general manager of BT Scotland, said: "Enablement of Bo'ness marks another broadband milestone for Scotland, but work does not stop here.

" The next step is to ensure the technology is adopted as widely as possible across public, private and personal platforms, to reap maximum benefit.

Do it better with broadband

''We need to demonstrate to internet users that whatever you do online, you can do it better with broadband — whether it's ordering supplies or selling products, working from home or distance learning, accessing local auth-ority services or keeping in touch with friends and family.

" Once people have tried broadband there really is no going back."

Councillor David Alexander, leader of Falkirk Council, said: "The introduction of widescale broadband is long overdue for Bo'ness. We believe any improvement to the infrastructure will undoubtedly bring better business opportunities for the area, one of our key objectives of the My Future's In Falkirk initiative."

Coverage is now 94% in Scotland

The availability of broadband over the BT wholesale network in Scotland now stands at 94 per cent. BT's programme is set to increase this figure to 97.8 per cent in the summer.

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