Pictured above: Glyn Pitchford

The hunt is on to identify needy areas of the West Midlands willing to trial super fast broadband.

The aim is to take 100Mbps (megabits per second) pilot projects to communities at the centre of the region's regeneration push.

Broadband campaigner Glyn Pitchford hopes three could be established - perhaps one each in Birmingham, the Black Country and Solihull - albeit finances might not stretch that far.

Mr Pitchford, the elected Business Voice WM business representative on the Birmingham and Black Country City Region board, has been given the go-ahead to earmark possible sites and report back with supporting costings and cost-benefit analyses.

The City Region Board will receive a full update on progress at its meeting on June 2.

The Government has already pledged to guarantee nearly every household access to at least 2Mbps by 2012.

And while welcoming the initiative, particularly since many individuals and small firms operate from home, Mr Pitchford believes mainstream business has to have far faster speeds far sooner.

He said: "It will be critical to attracting desperately needed inward investment into the West Midlands.

"This will boost the competitiveness of the region and make it more attractive to major international companies.

"Our region's economy is lagging behind much of the rest of the UK and it is only by being at the forefront of new developments will we be able to do something about it."

The City Region is already working hard on putting together the necessary framework covering common specifications, planning guidance, best practice and skills training.

Common specifications centres on what ducting, capable of taking the required fibre optic cabling, already exists and where the gaps are. Mr Pitchford said BT had promised it would share ducting if other telecom operators followed suit while Virgin Media was still considering its position.

Discussions with West Midlands councils have been taking place to establish common planning guidance on laying down a network, while best practice is all about gleaning as much information as possible on global advances, particularly from Government departments.

In a bid to have enough skilled people available to take advantage of super fast broadband discussions are ongoing with universities and colleges to lay on appropriate courses.

It is hoped to appoint a project manager to pull all the strands together.

"The person's task would be to take it all forward," said Mr Pitchford, chairman of the Next Generation Access Broadband Task and Finish Group. "Obviously finance is an issue in all this and we have been working on that. I would like to start with three pilots but it may be we can only afford one. We shall have to see.

"But I am confident that through public/private partnerships this can be achieved. It is vitally important we get the job done. This will be an economic driver for the West Midlands."

And as part of getting the importance of super fast broadband and its potential across, particularly to SMEs, the City Region plans to part sponsor a two-day national Next Generation 10 conference earmarked for November.

Recent research has suggested the majority of UK broadband users currently get between 3Mbps and 4.5Mbps.

The Government is pressing for a 50p monthly landline duty aimed at unlocking private investment and with the hope of enabling 90 per cent of the country to access the next generation of super fast broadband by 2017.

Super fast broadband is generally regarded as speeds of 50Mbps or above.