UUNET, an MCI WorldCom company and a global leader in Internet communications solutions, is hosting the British Government's official Budget website for the fourth consecutive year. With the public eagerly awaiting details of Gordon Brown's budget on March 9th, UUNET will provide HM Treasury with an Internet connection capable of meeting the demand for information. The capacity needed to meet public and media interest has grown from under 2 MBPS four years ago to exceeding 8 MBPS last year. This year may well see a further doubling of peak demand.
Previous years have demonstrated that visitors to HM Treasury site (www.hm-treasury.gov.uk) will remain logged on for several hours, whilst downloading large quantities of data. In order to deal with this increase in demand, the HM Treasury site is temporarily lifted from its usual server and made available from one of UUNET's high-speed servers, connected directly into the backbone. The UUNET network runs at 622 MBPS in London and delivers to major UK cities at 155 MBPS, with capacity into Europe and the US currently exceeding 500 MBPS.
Joe Clift, UUNET's UK marketing director, comments: "Over the last four years demand for budget information via the Internet has increased dramatically. In 1995 the website required a mere 2mbps, today it may well exceed 16mbps. This provides us with a very real indication of how the Internet has grown as a valued resource, not only within the corporate sector, but to the public in general. On March 9th businesses and individuals alike will be using the Internet to gain up-to-the-minute budget news without having to be glued to the broadcast media or wait for news programmes."
The budget Launchpad located at launchpad.uk.uu.net/launchpad/, provides direct links to the HM Treasury website and the Deloitte & Touche site. The Deloitte & Touche site will provide visitors with comment on budget issues as they occur. In addition, Deloitte & Touche will be hosting a Budget Breakfast Briefing the following morning with chancellor, Gordon Brown. Those visiting the site can take the opportunity to post budget questions to the chancellor. He will then answer a selection live on the web that morning.
