BT Invites Startups To Design Superfast Broadband Apps And Services
BT and TechHub offer support and workspace for tech entrpreneurs
BT has teamed up with TechHub to launch the BT Infinity Lab programme, which is inviting tech startups to come up with new applications and services for superfast broadband with a view to marketing them alongside BT products including up to 300Mbps broadband the BT HomeHub 5.
Participants will be invited to present their ideas to BT and TechHub, with the winner awarded six months support from BT, including research and development, engineering, legal and marketing, along with membership of TechHub’s sold-out community space in London’s Tech City.
Founded in 2010, TechHub has two sites near Silicon Roundabout, housing a growing community of tech entrepreneurs and providing space for startups to work and collaborate. It plans to launch another site at the Olympic Park next year, while it has spaces in Manchester, Latvia and Romania. Future expansion will see locations open in Swansea and India.
BT Infinity Labs
“Partnering with BT gives TechHub an unmissable opportunity to offer to tech start-ups,” says Elizabeth Varley, founder and CEO of TechHub. “Working with BT gives entrepreneurs the chance to test their innovations with a major partner, receive specialised help and advice, and take advantage of the huge promotional reach offered by this bastion of British business.
“For UK start-ups or those wanting to enter the UK market, it’s an opportunity that’s usually hard to come by without partnerships like this one between TechHub and BT.”
Communications Minister Ed Vaizey welcomes the development, which he believes is part of the radical transformation of broadband in the UK.
“TechHub and BT are to be congratulated on this brilliant initiative which will result in exciting new products and prototypes, helping all UK internet users to make the most of all the benefits superfast speed has to offer,” he says.
The government has pledged to ensure superfast broadband reaches 95 percent of the UK population by 2017 and 99 percent by 2018. As part of these targets, £250 million has been allocated to provide access to areas not covered by the existing £530 million Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme, which is aiming for 90 percent coverage by 2015.
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