Yarmouth Broadband, a community broadband initiative, was officially launched on Tuesday 31st January at a contract signing ceremony at The George Hotel, Yarmouth.
The attendees included Brian Friend, Chairman, Natural Enterprise; Matt Hawkins, Managing Director of C4L; David Pugh, Leader of the Isle of Wight Council; and Steve Cowley, Mayor of Yarmouth.
Yarmouth Broadband is a community service offering residents and businesses within the Yarmouth Telephone Exchange area (including Wellow, Thorley, Ningwood and Norton) the chance to sign up for high speed broadband, achieving speeds 2-3 times faster than their current provider. The service will go live in April.
Brian Friend, Chairman of Natural Enterprise, said: “In line with other community broadband projects around the country it has taken us some time to get to this position but credit must go to everyone involved for their perseverance in making faster broadband speeds a reality in the Yarmouth exchange. We continue to work with the Isle of Council to enable other rural communities to benefit from improved broadband speeds. Key to achieving this increased coverage is the need for local communities to demonstrate good levels of demand for such a service.”
Maria Stafford, local resident, said: “My family has been very keen to sign up. We live on the outer edge of the telephone exchange and our current service is very slow. A two to three times increase in our internet speed will make a huge difference for all the family, especially as with this service we shouldn’t see a dip in speeds at peak times.”
Taking up the Yarmouth Broadband service is very straightforward and the first 130 people to return a signed contract will not pay a connection fee.
Matt Hawkins, Managing Director of C4L who are one of the key partners in the initiative said “We’re delighted to be a partner in this community venture providing internet services to both businesses and homes on the Isle of Wight. As the internet becomes an integral part of both business and home life, the high-speed connections needed to maintain its capability will become ever more important. By providing a high-speed, resilient backhaul connection between Yarmouth and the UK network C4L is proud to do its part in making sure that everyone can share in the benefits of high speed broadband.”
A variety of packages are available for businesses including: Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL), a high-speed Internet access service with matching upstream and downstream data rates; and Ethernet First Mile (EFM), a highly resilient bonded copper pair Ethernet Service and the next generation in Ethernet offerings.
Brian Friend added: “The service will go live in April and I hope we will see strong take up, especially from the business community to whom it will make a real difference.”
The project will be run locally by Natural Enterprise, a not-for-profit organisation, with Navigate IT and Telecoms providing the expertise and technical support and C4L the backhaul infrastructure.
For more information visit our Yarmouth Broadband www.yarmouthbroadband.co.uk website, call 01983 550400.
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