Church Could Boost Broadband for Homes Around Boston in Lincolnshire

In an interesting development the MP for Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire, Matt Warman, has proposed to improve local superfast broadband connectivity by installing wireless kit on the top of St Botolph’s Church in central Boston. It’s a good idea, except others are already doing the same.

The port town of Boston is already home to a fair amount of “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) connectivity via BTOpenreach’s national UK network, but it’s a much more varied picture for those who live in the outlying rural areas where there are still slowspots to be found.

Matt Warman said (here):

“This is about providing a service that is better than anything that is currently available and fills in a gap and my role here is not to plug any one company it’s to try and get together a diverse mixture of companies and solutions so people’s problems go some way to getting solved.”

Apparently Warman, who only last month held a Government debate on the issue of broadband notspots (here), has already had a meeting with the National Farmers Union (NFU) and wireless ISP Air Broadband in order to discuss the possibility, which would catering for miles of surrounding countryside by installing a high-powered 80Mbps capable wireless transmitter on top of the church.

So far so good, except it’s difficult to see how this would be any different from the AB Internet’s local deployment, which already does much the same and offers max speeds of 50Mbps to many rural properties outside of the town. At this stage it’s unclear why AB Internet’s existing setup can’t simply be expanded upon or even if Warman is aware of the network.