Reports suggest that the Church of England (CoE) has offered to help boost rural broadband connectivity by opening up access to 10,000 of their churches so that alternative wireless network providers can install their kit on top.
The idea itself is by no means new and a number of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) providers already make use of such an approach. One of the best examples of this stems from WiSpire’s joint collaboration with the Diocese of Norwich, which has enabled their superfast broadband network to reach thousands of premises around rural Norfolk in England.
According to The Guardian, Sir Tony Baldry, who chairs the Church Buildings Council, has recently engaged with the Government’s rural affairs minister and offered the use of their church spires and towers in order to help deliver upon the new 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) and expand “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) coverage.
Rory Stewart, Rural Affairs Minister, said:
“Church spires are ideally located in remote rural areas to allow point-to-point broadband coverage. The offer from the church commissioners is greatly appreciated, and we are working closely with our colleagues in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to take advantage of the technological opportunities.”
The plan would require new guidelines so as to both protect the many churches, which are listed buildings, from harm and to also make it easier for ISPs to engage with rural communities where such buildings are so often present.
Mind you’re we’re not aware of there being any overly significant problems with gaining access to such churches and thus it remains unclear whether the new guidelines will actually result in a significant uptake in this approach.
The main barriers for ISPs are still fundamentally a mix of infrastructure (i.e. building the capacity to fuel a wireless network) and financial issues (i.e. finding enough people who will take the service in order to make it viable).
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