ENTERPRISE agency Project North-East has won a regional Best Business Support Initiative award for "Big Netty".

This is a two megabit "pipe" which provides a broadband private circuit Internet facility linking 10 of the agency's buildings.

Big Netty is the brainchild of PNE's Richard Clark and Tim Dixon of TDC Networking Consultancy, one of its tenant companies.

The network covers eight miles of leased lines and a half mile of fibre-optic cabling, providing 70 small and medium-sized companies with Internet access 60 times faster than a home computer modem and 32 times faster than ISDN.Individual users are offered firewall protection, direct connection for specialist applications, cluster links, private "tunnels" and Web applications.

Big Netty impressed the judges of One 2 One's Best 4 Business award by winning the regional final, and will go on to represent the region in the national awards on November 3.

The communication facility is a big hit with PNE's tenants, especially the hi-tech companies in Pink Lane, Newcastle, which has become known as Silicon Alley.

This includes Northumbrian Water House, opened last week by e-commerce Minister Patricia Hewitt. It is part of a hi-tech "tele-village" created under the Grainger Town regeneration project.

Until now smaller firms in the North-East have been at a disadvantage as far as technology is concerned due to a "digital divide".

Hi-tech work: E-minister Patricia Hewitt watches Mark Elliott at work in Mere Mortals, one of the hi-tech firms in Silicon Alley.

The main problem has been cost. A broadband Internet connection costs £20,000 per year in this region compared to London where it is only £10-12,000.

PNE's approach to this was a shared cost project where it can allow small businesses to share the Internet access and the costs, thereby helping them to tackle the digital divide and compete with the South on a more equal footing.

This has resulted in charges of only £10 per month for outgoing broadband Internet access, and £100 per month for a direct connection. An annual fee of £100 gives firms an e-mail and web package.

Technology at this price has advantages. For example, Orchid Software now operates a 24-hour business through offices in India and San Francisco in addition to the one in Newcastle. It is developing leading edge programmes for Internet-based solutions.

And TDC Networking, which is based at PNE's Design Works premises in Gateshead, is able through Big Netty to develop complex e-commerce applications using the high-speed access, enabling it to work efficiently with suppliers and clients across Europe.