Businesses and other areas of the community in Hawick are set to be the next in line to benefit from a new, high speed communications network.
BT’s Ethernet network, aimed at medium-sized businesses, shops, schools and other organisations, is designed to save time and money.
Customers can choose ethernet speeds between one megabit per second (Mbps) and 10 Gigabits per second (Gbits), depending on their needs. At the top rate of 10Gbits the system is capable of transmitting an 10 billion bits of information per second.
Hawick will be joining Galashiels and Peebles, which have already been upgraded for ethernet.
Brendan Dick, BT Scotland director, said: “This is an important step forward for Hawick. Ethernet allows organisations to connect to their sites and customers locally, around the UK and internationally on an extremely secure and reliable network.
“It will also help public sector organisations run even more efficient networks, saving money and protecting public services.
“For any company considering investing locally, high-speed ethernet is attractive, while it can help existing businesses work and communicate more effectively.”
He claimed: “BT is the only company consistently investing in a mixture of faster next generation broadband and ethernet services in and outside Scotland’s major urban areas.”
This expansion of ethernet is in addition to the £2.5 billion BT roll-out of fibre broadband, expected to reach two-thirds of UK homes and businesses by the end of 2014.