Diamond Net Brings 4G Wireless Broadband to North Lincolnshire UK

Fixed wireless ISP Diamond Net has started the introduction of its new “ultra fast” 4G based broadband service for the public sector, businesses and potentially up to 10,000 homes of North Lincolnshire Homes (NLH), a registered social landlord (charity), in the Scunthorpe area of North Lincolnshire.

The service will be broadcast using UK Broadband‘s (UKB) 3.5GHz and 3.6GHz based Long Term Evolution (LTE) network from the top of Scunthorpe’s four tallest buildings, which just so happen to be owned by Diamond Net. The new technology, which began rolling out yesterday in the Market Hill area, is a replacement for the ISPs existing WiMAX network and offers speeds of up to 50Mbps.

Diamond Net claims that the wireless solution is necessary because the North Lincolnshire area is poorly served by fixed line broadband ISPs, which is apparently unlikely to change in the “immediate future as there are insufficient internet Points of Presence (POPs) in the BT exchanges in the region“. In fairness that might change under the governments superfast broadband plan, although this has yet to be confirmed.

It’s further understood that some 100 homes have already taken part in a 6 month trial of the service, which was conducted between July 2011 and January 2012.

Mike Eckersley, Head of ICT at NLH, said:

“It is well reported just how much this area suffers from poor broadband coverage. Diamond-net is a broadband service which offers high speeds of up to 50Mbs and does not require the use of a phone line. This makes the service more affordable for customers.

It is really important to us that we support our tenants and their families, as well as the wider public to improve their digital access.”

Subscribers will be required to install a FREE receiver dish on their roof in order to receive the service, while packages start from £13.99 per month (3 month contract). Unfortunately the details are quite vague, with no mention of any features or usage allowance. This makes it difficult to know what the different pricing structures represent.

Meanwhile Diamond Net and UK Broadband have already pledged to investigate whether or not it would be possible to extend their service to “many more locations” around the UK. Credits to Thinkbroadband for spotting the PR.