A round-up of today's other business news in brief ...

Belfast suburb to get fast BT broadband

BT has chosen a suburb of south Belfast, Balmoral, as one of 29 locations to benefit from the first phase of a £1.5 billion investment in super-fast broadband. From early next year nearly 30,000 homes and business in the area will benefit.

O2 and Vodafone sign site-sharing deal

O2 and Vodafone have signed a new site-sharing agreement following an announcement by their parents, Telefonica and Vodafone Group, that they will share infrastructure in Britain, Spain, Germany and Ireland in a bid to make savings of hundreds of millions of euro.

Unlike their operations in other markets, the Irish subsidiaries are required by their licences to share the sites of their telecom masts. A spokeswoman for O2 said the arrangement would mean both telcos would be “more proactive” about sharing.

Former travel agent owner sued

The former owner of Dun Laoghaire Travel, which was struck off the register of companies in January 2008, is being sued for €1.3 million by a tour operator.

Holiday Malta Company Ltd claims Robert Evans had diverted large sums due to it to his own accounts or to accounts controlled by him and also failed to honour agreements to put in place securities over properties.

The proceedings by Holday Malta against Mr Evans came before the Commercial Court yesterday.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly agreed to adjourn to next month to allow lawyers for Mr Evans to consider whether to apply to have a court-appointed guardian to him.

Flogas to sell natural gas to firms

Flogas is taking on State-owned Bord Gáis in the commercial market, offering businesses a 15 per cent discount on current prices.

The company already supplies liquid gas to commercial users. Over the last few years it has also been supplying natural gas to domestic users. It announced yesterday that it will sell natural gas to businesses as well.

The move will bring it into competition with Bord Gáis and the Viridian-owned Energia.