Appeal to keep Olympic broadband

Organisers hope to repeat Team GB's Beijing sailing successes in Dorset

A campaign has begun to persuade BT to maintain a super-fast broadband service it plans to install during the 2012 Olympic sailing events in Dorset.

The telecoms giants will install the connection to cater for media covering the Games in Weymouth and Portland.

Local businesses said they were desperate for faster speeds and want the service to be made permanent.

But BT said it was "too early" to speculate on what will happen to the link after the Games.

Cheryl Barley, who runs The Old Coastguards holiday cottages, said she cannot get broadband and has to rely on an unreliable wireless service.

She added: "You get your e-mails set up to send off and they don't go.

BT has already announced plans to make super-fast broadband available to some 10 million homes by 2012. BT spokeswoman

"People send us e-mails and we don't receive them so they book somewhere else.

"I would say that 90% of our business comes from the internet.

"You need to be on the ball to run your business and if you can't run it properly you go out of business."

David Jenkins, chief executive of Dorset County Council, said: "We would like the best possible and most powerful internet links to be made available.

"We don't want to wait to be at the back of the queue because we are a predominantly rural area."

BT said it could not make any promises, but added it was committed to make super-fast broadband available to 40% of the UK by 2012.

A spokeswoman said: "It is too early to speculate on what will happen to the link after 2012.

"BT has already announced plans to make super-fast broadband available to some 10 million homes by 2012.

"The company has pledged to spend £1.5 billion - the UK's biggest single commercial investment in fibre broadband - on this programme."

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