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While BT has installed ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) technology at over 1,000 exchanges, rural areas have largely been excluded by the company, for commercial reasons.

To tackle the issue, the Chief Executive of BT Retail, Pierre Danon, has 'pledged' that the company would equip more exchanges with broadband technology if the public and private sectors 'were prepared to work together to stimulate awareness and demand to make further roll-out commercially viable'.

Speaking at the inauguration of a pilot scheme in Cornwall - a private-public sector partnership that will see BT equip up to

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12 Cornish exchanges with ADSL - he called for a nationwide emulation of the 'ACT NOW' scheme. This is an initiative to help subsidise and encourage businesses to pay for broadband take-up. (Almost fifty per cent of funding, however, comes from the EC for the Cornish project.).

'Now is the time to move from an infrastructure approach to broadband to a demand led approach. ACT NOW is an excellent illustration of how this can work,' said Danon. 'Cornwall could be the blueprint for the development of broadband in other regions of the UK where, without this kind of partnership approach, deployment is currently uneconomic.'

'BT shares the government's vision of a broadband Britain but we cannot do it alone,' stated Danon. 'We want to create partnerships with others who share that ambition and will approach all regional agencies and stakeholders to pursue opportunities similar to ACT NOW over the coming months.'

Members of ACT NOW - that's 'Access for Cornwall through Telecommunications to New Opportunities Worldwide' - are BT, the South West of England Regional Development Agency, Objective One, Business Link Devon and various Cornish bodies, including the county council and local college.