Wireless ISP Allpay Broadband to Withdraw Service in Herefordshire

Herefordshire-based Allpay Broadband has announced that it will begin withdrawing service from some rural areas because the local Government-backed Fastershire project, which is working with BT to deploy “fibre broadband” services to most of the county, is now achieving what it once set out to solve.

But before anybody jumps on this as another example of the Broadband Delivery UK programme trampling on an existing operator then take note that Allpay was only ever able to offer Internet download speeds of up to just 2Mbps. More to the point the ISPs boss has welcomed the local progress (here).

Tony Killeen, Owner of Allpay Limited, said:

“When we first pioneered the use of church towers to transmit an internet signal to digitally excluded households in what was a UK first, we were, off our own backs, providing a public service when nobody else was or wanted to.

Not only did we connect communities, but we raised awareness of the issue and have paved the way for the investment that’s happening today. The pillars of allpay are built on inclusivity – whether social, digital or financial – and this ethos runs through each of the businesses we operate.”

Apparently a combination of both the aforementioned market forces and unspecified legislative changes has resulted in Allpay’s decision to decommission the service in certain rural areas, which we understand is set to begin at the end of this month.

The good news is that the majority of those likely to be affected are already in areas that have been covered by BT’s FTTC/P deployments under the Fastershire scheme.