South Norfolk UK Council Bring 10Mbps Wireless Broadband to Rural Areas

The South Norfolk Council has teamed up with local ISP InTouch Systems, which runs fixed wireless broadband provider ITSwisp, to help them deploy a new 10Mbps+ capable network to parts of the region that won’t benefit from the existing Better Broadband for Norfolk (BBfN) project.

At present the BBfN programme with Openreach (BT) is already working to ensure that 90% of the county can access a “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) network by the end of 2017 (they’re on-target to achieve this) and after that they intend to reach 95% by March 2020 (here) or 91% in South Norfolk alone. No doubt future work may push this further but there will still be plenty of big rural gaps left to fill.

Michael Edney, Deputy Leader of South Norfolk Council, said:

“A decent broadband service is essential in nearly every aspect of our modern lives – shopping, homework, video streaming, social networks and so much more. The current broadband speeds have left some residents and businesses feeling excluded and frustrated making it vitally important that we did something to help – and we have.”

Steve Temple, InTouch Systems, said:

“We are very proud and excited to be awarded the contract by South Norfolk Council to provide sustainable, reliable, fast broadband via our independent ITSwisp network. We are familiar with the challenges faced by local communities and businesses with limited broadband, having worked together with other local areas developing our innovative ITSwisp service to move them forward into the 21st century.”

Sadly the announcement contains no concrete information on price (ITSwisp’s packages only go up to 8Mbps at £31.99 per month), deployment cost or any specific expectation of coverage, except for a vague reference to delivering “download speeds of at least 10Mbps to as many addresses as possible.”