Various rural parts of North Lincolnshire (England) are starting to benefit after fixed wireless broadband ISP Quickline began making use of around 30 local churches and village halls in order to deploy their so-called “AIRFibre” service, which offers Internet download speeds of up to 8-15Mbps (uploads of up to 10Mbps).
The service might not sound particularly fast, but it’s often a big improvement on what related communities could get before (usually sub-2Mbps via BT lines). In one example a 12th Century church (St. Edmunds) in the remote village of Riby was turned into a repeater site for the wireless network, which allowed their service to be distributed around the local community.
The Church of St. Radegund in Grayingham has also done something similar and there are plenty of others.
Sally Vergette, Member of the Parochial Church Council at St Edmunds, said:
“We had been concerned that this beautiful building wasn’t fully utilised by local residents and that as it wasn’t being used we may lose it. So, over the last year we have been running film screenings and other events as a way of bringing people together and also as a way of raising funds for the up-keep of St. Edmunds.
We know that not everyone likes going to church for religious reasons so we are making other uses of the building and now I am pleased to say that it is well used by villagers living in Riby and the surrounding area, it acts as a community hub for events and celebrations as well as church services and ceremonies.
It is also acting as a repeater site for businesses and residents in the surrounding area who will be able to connect their property to the internet. Many people around here are subject to very slow internet speeds, sometimes as low as 0.2Mbs which makes downloading information from the internet almost impossible. This installation of high speed internet really brings this ancient church and surrounding properties into the 21st Century.”
Steve Bolan, Director at Quickline Communications, added:
“We are continuing to expand and upgrading right across our network to provide superfast speeds for Greater Lincolnshire, East Riding and North Yorkshire. Our new superfast products have just been launched in Scunthorpe for both businesses and residential customers. We are additionally working with West Lindsey District Council to deliver super fast internet to the last 10 per cent of the District.”
The West Lindsey District Council currently aims to make a minimum broadband download speed of 2Mbps available to everybody by 2017, which forms one part of the wider Northernlincs Broadband project that is currently rolling out BT’s fixed line “high-speed fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network to cover 92% of North and North East Lincolnshire by spring 2015.
Meanwhile customers who sign-up to Quickline’s service typically pay around £27.50 per month (plus £195 installation), which includes an unlimited usage allowance and free WiFi router. No phone line is required, so you don’t have to pay phone line rental. A Pay-As-You-Go option is also available that provides something similar for £5 per day, £15 a week or £30 per month.
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