As an international centre for science, technology and financial
services, levels of e-connectivity in Edinburgh are among the
highest in the UK.
The capital offers an excellent choice of high bandwidth
networks and is located on the UK backbone of every major
telecommunications carrier.
Edinburgh is one of the first cities in the UK to access
BT’s superfast broadband. Work is already underway in Stockbridge
and the New Town where businesses and homes will be able to access
the lightningfast service from their service provider early next
year, followed by Craiglockhart and Corstorphine.
Super-fast broadband downloads at more than 10 times the speed
currently being experienced by most households and small
businesses.
There is a healthy choice of critical data centres within 25
kilometres of the city centre, with readily available high capacity
power supplies.
Diverse transatlantic network routes provide the same connection
speeds between Edinburgh and New York as between any other European
city and the Eastern Seaboard.
A number of wireless broadband network providers are active
in Edinburgh. In March 2006, The Cloud launched the first
nationwide wireless network in nine cities across the UK,
including Edinburgh. In the same year, Edinburgh became one of the
first cities to sign up to the BT Wireless City Initiative, an
ambitious project to provide high-speed wireless broadband
throughout UK city centres. Wireless broadband is also available on
bus and train routes between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Every major hardware and software vendor has a sales and support
presence in the Central Belt of Scotland.
