Posted: 06th Mar, 2008 By: MarkJ
The
Suffolk Free Press reports that rural residents of Foxearth and Liston are on the verge of securing a state-of-the-art community broadband service. The joint effort by the parish council and Foxearth Liston Action Group (FLAG) would see a wireless mast, attached to a building in the parish, being used to deliver broadband services around the village:
Clive Waite, Foxearth resident and FLAG chairman, says the Government is only just waking up to what needs to be done to bring rural England into the 21st century.
He said: "When it comes to the internet infrastructure, compared with other countries we are the poor man of the first world. For most people, broadband is something that works in theory but is not working in practice despite many people paying for what are advertised as fast broadband connections."
Mr Waite said those signing up would pay a one-off payment of £99, and then monthly fees of £16 or £19, for speeds up to 8Mb. "This compares to the current BT price, which provides many rural domestic users with only half-a-Mb, just 512k, in most cases," he added.
The Foxearth and Liston Parish Council have applied for a £4,000 grant from the Rural Communities Fund to cover start-up costs and a decision is expected on 20th March 2008. It's hoped that the service itself could be up and running by the summer.