Net boost for town

Rural business will benefit from the new internet technology

Carmarthen in west Wales has become the latest town to be hooked up to the new high speed internet.

It is one of twelve towns in rural Wales benefitting from the latest broadband technology under a joint initiative by the Welsh Development Agency and BT.

At the moment the vast majority of home PCs use slow dial-up connections that can take a long time to download material from the internet.

Broadband benefits

24-hour internet connection

Video on demand

Fast interactive digital television

Fast interactive home shopping

Video e-mail

Video conferencing

Fast downloading of games, music and software

That is now changing with the arrival in Wales of ADSL - new technology that is, in theory, around ten times quicker than conventional modems.

The "Strand Six" project aims to put small towns in rural Wales on the same technical footing as big cities like Cardiff, London and Manchester.

BT's £3m investment is being matched by cash from the WDA.

Carmarthen is the latest town to benefit - another nine communities in mid, west and north Wales are also going broadband.

But the new service comes at a price.

Domestic customers will pay a connection fee of £150 and around £40 a month for an always-on internet connection.

Small businesses will pay a minimum of £120 a quarter for a 500kbs link as well as a one-off connection fee.

As well as high speed downloads from the internet, ADSL promises a revolution in multimedia applications, with music, pop videos and even entire films "streamed" in high quality from the web.