THE sky's the limit for a Worcester company that has launched a new air-band broadband internet connection service.

Air-band differs from the traditional high-speed broadband internet connection, which runs through underground phone cables, in that the signals are carried through the air.

Now computer company Serv-IT, based in Blackpole, hopes to "put Worcester on the broadband map" with its new service, which they say is more flexible than broadband and can reach the "black holes" unreachable by traditional broadband.

The service works via small aerials fitted to the roofs of customers' premises, which then pick up a radio signal from a local transmitter.

It means businesses previously unable to receive broadband because they were too far away from an "internet enabled" BT exchange can now, if there is a transmitter in the area, receive the service.

"There are two reasons why people may not be able to get broadband," said Charles Wood, a sales consultant with Serv-IT, established in 1998.

"Their local BT exchange hasn't been enabled, either because it is very old or very small, or BT hasn't prioritised it. So a company could be right next door to an exchange and still not get broadband.

"Or, the second reason is that a company is outside of the 5.5km reach of an enabled exchange, in which case BT cannot provide it."

He said air-band was more flexible than cable broadband.

"As long as there's a local transmitter, air-band can be passed on to quite a large area. The beauty of our system is that we can just put a transmitter up so we have more flexibility to move around. So as long as the demand is there, we can put up more transmitters."

At the moment, the system covers about one third of Worcestershire and about 20 per cent of Herefordshire, but Mr Wood said the coverage would be "led by demand".

"If a trading estate is somewhere stuck away and they say 'we have 10 or 15 businesses who need broadband' we would look at putting up a transmitter. But we do need clusters of businesses - it would not be viable to install a transmitter up just for one company."

Serv-IT, which employs 10 people, has built up its business as an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and web designer and last August, moved to Blackpole from its former premises, in Norton, near Evesham.