eXwavia Aim to Make Montgomeryshire the Fastest UK Rural Broadband Region

Wales focused ISP Exwavia, which uses wireless networking (wifi) to deploy faster broadband into isolated rural areas, has announced that it plans to turn Montgomeryshire into the “fastest rural broadband region in the UK“. At the same time their related service coverage in the Cefn Coch and Adfa areas (near Welshpool, Powys) has also been extended to connect 80 properties.

Apparently the 80 previously isolated local homes and businesses can now receive internet download speeds from between 4-20Mbps (Megabits per second) via the ISPs wireless service, although faster 60Mbps solutions are available for some firms. Prices start from around £20 a month for an “unlimited” (Fair Usage Policy) home user package.

The service installation would normally be prohibitively expensive (costs up to around £1,000) but Exwavia has been able to cut this out of the equation by utilising the Welsh Government’s (WAG) popular £2m Broadband Support Scheme (BSS). This offers grants worth up to £1,000 for residents and businesses (per property) who live in parts of Wales where either no broadband or only sub-2Mbps speeds are available.

Annette Burgess, Managing Director of eXwavia, said

“The new broadband network demonstrates how almost any rural community can get fast and reliable broadband where there is demand. We’ve worked closely with Pete Jones who has acted as a passionate broadband champion within the community and spearheaded a local campaign.

We’re now working with other communities in north Powys to bring more fast and reliable broadband into homes and businesses. We want to make Montgomeryshire the fastest and most reliable rural location for broadband in the UK.”

The region of Montgomeryshire, which resides in the principal area of Powys (county), is known to be one of the UK’s most rural and isolated regions. That makes deploying faster internet connectivity particularly challenging. But eXwavia’s network in the area has been made possible through a unique Microwave link to Long Mountain near Welshpool, which connects to FibreSpeed’s fibre optic network in North Wales.

According to Ofcom, residents inside Powys receive some of the UK’s slowest fixed line broadband “modem sync” speeds (5.3Mbps) and 21.2% of locals only have access to sub-2Mbps connectivity. No superfast fixed-line broadband services are currently available and broadband take-up stands at 62%.

The Microwave link is apparently then connected to masts at Cefn Coch and Adfa, which distributes the service over local wifi connectivity. Exwavia claims that, as a result of this new link, rural communities throughout north Powys now have the potential to get “fast and reliable broadband which is currently unavailable through conventional telephone lines“.