Voneus Bring 60-80Mbps Broadband to Dunton in Rural Bedfordshire

Some 300 homes and businesses in the digitally isolated rural Bedfordshire (England) village of Dunton can now access broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps after Voneus built a new wireless network, which is distributed via eight small transmitters on top the local St Mary Magdalene church.

Existing fixed line broadband services in Dunton, which are delivered via Openreach’s (BT) old copper lines from the Biggleswade telephone exchange, have until recently been woefully slow and many homes would struggle to receive much above 1Mbps.

However a collaboration between Voneus, Virgin Media, the local council and various church authorities has delivered a major upgrade. In short, Voneus installed a transmitter at Saxon Pool & Leisure Centre in nearby Biggleswade (supplied by Virgin’s fibre optic network), which then beams the connection directly to a receiver on the tower of St Mary Magdalene church in Dunton. After that eight smaller transmitters are used to distribute the service around the village, which are also attached to the same church.

Gary Day, Voneus Sales Director, said:

“It was a pleasure to work on such an innovative project. St Mary Magdalene Church has been the focal of community life in Dunton for centuries, and it’s great to see the tower now playing a vital role in providing the village with superfast broadband connectivity to the wider global community.”

Adam Zerny, Central Bedfordshire Councillor, said:

“Getting superfast broadband to Dunton has been a real triumph of people power. The Dunton Broadband Group found a determined and effective broadband installer in Voneus and the company have moved mountains to get the village connected.”

Prices for the 100Mbps capable service start at £20 inc VAT per month for a 20GB usage allowance or £34.99 for unlimited usage, on top of that there’s usually a £149.99 installation fee. Apparently locals are already said to be receiving download speeds of between 60-80Mbps

The MP for North East Bedfordshire, Alistair Burt, is due to visit Dunton on Friday 2nd December and tour the new network. Earlier this month Voneus also deployed a similar solution to the rural Gloucestershire village of Miserden (here).