Rural Cornwall residents launch superfast broadband petition

A group of rural Cornwall residents are campaigning to be introduced to fibre optic broadband.

Homeowners from a rural area of Cornwall have launched a petition to try to bring superfast broadband access to their properties.

The region is covered by the Superfast Cornwall rollout project, which has been bringing the next-generation service to properties as part of the government’s Broadband Delivery UK scheme, reports the Cornwall Guardian.

However, the civil parish of St Kew and other nearby areas such as Trequite have been excluded from initial installations because they are not deemed to be commercially viable by service provider BT.

A petition has now been set up by local residents Alex and Bella Nicolas, who have become concerned about how much the poor quality of their existing broadband connection is hindering their daily lives.

Mrs Nicholas said: “If our small but beautiful area is left outside the fibre footprint, we will all be at a significant disadvantage to other more urban areas.”

Once the Superfast Cornwall project is completed, it is estimated around 80 per cent of the region will have access to fibre optic broadband.

Lancashire village’s broadband speeds Wray ahead of the rest of the UK

Residents in the village of Wray, in a rural part of Lancashire, have become the first customers live on the B4RN network.

The village has become the latest one to get connected to the B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North) fibre network. The project said this marked a significant milestone for the project as the Wray is now the largest village in the B4RN area, 229 homes, a “virtual rural city”, according to the project’s backers.

The installation of a wireless mesh network in Wray has already demonstrated the benefits of fast connectivity to the community and so B4RN expects take up to be high.

A B4RN spokesperson said: “Given that Wray is a well connected village, thanks to a WiFi mesh network that has been in place since 2004, the residents are already aware of the benefits of a good broadband connection and it is hoped that take up should be in the same region of other B4RN areas.”

Work commenced on getting Wray connected back in July 2013, with work temporarily impeded by thetheft of cabling equipment in late December.

Several villagers volunteered to dig the main duct into the village and some helped in digging trenches to have their neighbours gain access to the superfast broadband fibre network. Home owners have been helped in installing connection boxes on their walls ready for B4RN to connect fibre to their premises.

The connection to the village has helped the local Methodist church transmit services to members of the congregation that cannot make it into the church in person.

B4RN said that speeds of up to 900Mbps were now possible in the village following the network connection using FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) connections.