Home
 » ISP News » 
Sponsored Links

LA6B4RN to Bring 1Gbps Broadband to Leck and Cowan Bridge – Lancashire

Friday, Jun 12th, 2015 (10:14 am) - Score 819

The B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North) project has spawned another spin-off scheme called LA6B4RN, which is proposing to roll-out a 1000Mbps capable pure fibre optic (FTTH) broadband network to connect every property in the rural villages of Masongill, Ireby, Leck, Cowan Bridge and Overtown (Lancashire, England).

In case anybody has forgotten, B4RN is a community funded and built network that is currently deploying out to make different parts of rural Lancashire, including some bordering areas in Cumbria and Yorkshire. The network has been so successful that they’re now self-sustaining and recently connected 1000+ premises to their service (here).

But B4RN doesn’t operate in isolation and they’re also liaising with other local communities to help them establish similar projects of their own, such the B4YS scheme that’s working hard to connect homes in Yealand, Silverdale and Storth (here).

The approach for those communities in the LA6 postcode (hence LA6B4RN, obviously) is thus almost identical to B4YS in that B4RN will help to organise and deploy the network, although the project itself will be largely overseen by a different group of people from the local area.

It’s worth pointing out that the regional state aid fuelled Superfast Lancashire and BT deployment of significantly slower “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) services, which aims to reach 97% of premises by the end of 2015 and 99% by around 2017/18, currently has the LA6 communities listed as “under review” (i.e. BTOpenreach are deploying nearby and considering whether to extend into the same areas). But so far there has been no firm commitment and we wonder how fast that will change after today’s news.

But B4RN has never let BT stand in their way, usually managing to beat them at their own game, and in this case the local communities of Masongill, Ireby, Leck, Cowan Bridge and Overtown also appear to have become tired of the wait. But before all this the group will need to raise the needed funding, identify the best route and form a volunteer workforce to help with the building phase.

In terms of funding, B4RN has estimated that the costs of building their fibre optic network into Leck, Cowan Bridge, Overtown and Ireby at £60,000. The local populations in each of these communities range from around just 80 (Ireby) to 260 (Leck) each.

The goal now is to begin digging this summer 2015, but that will mean getting around half of the necessary investment ready by the end of June so that they can buy the materials and any other relevant bits. Otherwise the project doesn’t yet have its own website, although the local community are active on the Fraser Hall blog.

Once deployed the service itself usually costs £30 inc. VAT per month and then £150 for the one-off connection fee, although for that you get an unlimited and 1000Mbps capable pure fibre optic package and don’t need to pay separate phone line rental.

Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
Search ISP News
Search ISP Listings
Search ISP Reviews

Comments are closed

Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £24.00
132Mbps
Gift: None
Shell Energy UK ISP Logo
Shell Energy £26.99
109Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £27.99
145Mbps
Gift: None
Zen Internet UK ISP Logo
Zen Internet £28.00 - 35.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £15.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
YouFibre UK ISP Logo
YouFibre £19.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
BeFibre UK ISP Logo
BeFibre £21.00
150Mbps
Gift: £25 Love2Shop Card
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (5472)
  2. BT (3505)
  3. Politics (2524)
  4. Openreach (2291)
  5. Business (2251)
  6. Building Digital UK (2234)
  7. FTTC (2041)
  8. Mobile Broadband (1961)
  9. Statistics (1778)
  10. 4G (1654)
  11. Virgin Media (1608)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1451)
  13. Fibre Optic (1392)
  14. Wireless Internet (1386)
  15. FTTH (1381)
Promotion
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms , Privacy and Cookie Policy , Links , Website Rules , Contact
Mastodon