A number of organisations in Scotland are going to get a major boost from a trial initiative, which will see many of them trying out the latest super-fast broadband package provided by a telecoms company.

The Glasgow Halfway area is being targeted by the BT scheme, which will run from this month until March next year.

BT's contribution, which reflects many goals set out by the Digital Britain report, could form part of an overall strategy to roll out connections of this kind across the rest of the UK during the next few years.

"Our three super-fast broadband trials will allow businesses to tell us just how they want to use the services and what's possible in real world conditions", said BT Business managing director Bill Murphy.

He added: "It's very exciting for BT and those who want to take part."

By 2011, 3G mobile broadband users in the UK will have overtaken the number of people using fixed broadband lines, according to a new study by mobileSQUARED this week.

More than half of small businesses (53 per cent) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support. London-based Connect conducted the research in 2007.