Updated August 2005
Launched - April 2002, with an extension project announced on 26 May 2004.
Partners include: Cornwall Enterprise, Cornwall County Council, South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA), Business Link Devon & Cornwall, Cornwall College, Defra and BT.
actnow started in April 2002 and was the first broadband partnership to be set up between the public and private sectors. The £19 million project provides an intensive financial and support package to over 6,500 small and medium-sized businesses to help them make the most of broadband and Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
BT has invested over £3 million in the project and at the end of July 2005, brought broadband to exchanges serving virtually every home and business (over 99% per cent) in the county.
actnow is designed to support businesses and create demand for broadband across Cornwall and includes funds from Objective One (£4.35 million), SWRDA (£873,000) and Cornwall County Council (£200,000 through its economic development company Cornwall Enterprise). The project provides advice on getting connected to broadband and a rebate on the costs, as well as in-depth tailored advice on how to use IT to improve business. The actnow accelerator service provides further financial help to businesses to help increase their potential through broadband and ICT.
In May 2004, actnow announced a £6.5 million expansion to bring the benefits of high speed Internet to the County's most remote and rural areas - with a new financial and support package specially designed for farm businesses.
actnow has been praised by the previous e-Minister Stephen Timms and Rural Affairs Minister, Alun Michael - as well as gaining a European award for e-Best Practice. It is being used as a 'good practice' case study of information and communications technology playing a key role in regional economic development by a multinational European project, called Best eEurope Practices (BEEP). actnow also won the Broadband Challenge for the best regional broadband demand stimulation campaign.
Since its launch, actnow has exceeded all of its targets, enabling some 6,500 Cornwall-based businesses to access broadband technology. There are over 59,000 connections in the County in total and many more Cornish SMEs and farms are expected to benefit from the project.
Take up of broadband in Cornwall is already estimated by actnow to be the best of any rural area in the UK, with more than one in three SMEs already signed up for the service.
As a result of the actnow initiative, an additional 750 enterprises are operating in Cornwall that consider the Internet critical to their business success. Over 2,000 jobs have also been created through actnow, boosting Cornwall's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by more than £50 million.
For further information about actnow, visit www.actnowcornwall.co.uk