Prof Dennis Kehoe of AIMES 300

A NEW super-fast broadband service for businesses will shortly be launched in Liverpool.

The £1m scheme, lead by AIMES Grid Services, will link Liverpool City Council’s existing fibre cable with new Virgin Media Business switching equipment and tier one provider Global Crossing.

Known as Fibrenet, the project to upgrade the city’s broadband infrastructure follows the publication in 2009 of the Digital Britain report and has been made possible by a £400,000 grant from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB).

It will create Liverpool’s first “digital exchange”. At the moment, London and Manchester are the only UK cities with such an exchange.

AIMES, based at Liverpool Innovation Park (LIP) on Edge Lane, has already signed up the BBC, Sony, UCI and Getty Images as customers. AIMES is also seeking local firms, hospitals, universities and other institutions which want to take part in an initial one year trial starting this July.