Rural broadband project

Guardsman

UK's rural broadband project gets EU approval

The UK's plans to roll out broadband to rural areas has received EU approval.

Such approval was needed because the project is partially state-aided.

The green light means councils can now begin laying cables that will bring super-fast speeds to rural areas although many are yet to choose a network provider.

Culture secretary Maria Miller intervened last week after several months of delays in Europe.

"Finally getting the green light from Brussels will mean a huge boost for the British economy," she said.

"Today's announcement means that we can crack on with delivering broadband plans, boosting growth and jobs around the country," she added.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20413324

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Good news but I wonder how they define rural areas ? I shall use my area as an example. Do they mean they are going to get super-fast speeds in places like Llandudno Bangor Caernarfon and Holyhead or do they actually mean that outlaying villages are also going to get much faster speeds.

I live in a lovely part of Anglesey but the penalty was that the broadband BB speed I was getting was not much better than dial-up and because it was so slow I then qualified for a £1.000 grant to get wireless broadband beamed from a fiberspeed mast.
My speed now is a workable 8Mbps and the monthly charge is less than I was paying my previous provider.

Eliza_2

Still very slow progress and a long way to go. Where I live (Peak Park) lots of people still can't get broadband at all, so discussion of speeds is purely academic and likely to be met with sarcastic comments!!!

tonyh66

what have councils got to do with telecoms? its openreach who should be laying the cables.

Guardsman

Eliza wrote: »

Still very slow progress and a long way to go. Where I live (Peak Park) lots of people still can't get broadband at all, so discussion of speeds is purely academic and likely to be met with sarcastic comments!!!

Does your area have similar scheme
http://wales.gov.uk/topics/businessandeconomy/broadbandandict/broadband/bbss/;jsessionid=76DB3CFEC21035989207ADB874015C4E?lang=en

I have done a lot of cycling in your part of the world it's lovely there.

System

tonyh66 wrote: »

what have councils got to do with telecoms? its openreach who should be laying the cables.

It is but it will be councils contracting Openreach as part of this scheme.

TBH it doesn't need to be Openreach. There are other companies that are in the business of laying cables that the councils could use. All Openreach would be required to do is the terminations each end

mwddrwg

Where we live we didn't have broadband either as the whole village is too far from the exchange. We worked with the Welsh Assembly and a local IT company to set up a wifi network for the village where each house now has speeds of up to 10MB/sec. We had to apply for a grant of £1000 to install the aerial and modem but got it through very quickly. Costs around £20 a month so not that cheap but pretty reliable and a bit of a godsend really!

mwddrwg

Guardsman wrote: »

Does your area have similar scheme
http://wales.gov.uk/topics/businessandeconomy/broadbandandict/broadband/bbss/;jsessionid=76DB3CFEC21035989207ADB874015C4E?lang=en

I have done a lot of cycling in your part of the world it's lovely there.

Not far from you Guardsman (Rhiwlas)

Guardsman

Rhiwlas Ynys Mon or the mainland ? The username should have been a clue that you are local to me.

mwddrwg

Mainland, up in wilds. Great view of Anglesey from our house

Guardsman

I'm near Llyn Alaw --- Are you with Exwavia ?

mwddrwg

No, Opus IT Solutions based in Parc Menai (owner lives in the village). It's a great service and wouldn't be able to function without it now.