Matt Smith, operations manager for Fastershire with Paul Etheridge, Airband civil engineering manager
In March 2019 Airband has started work to provide superfast fibre broadband to a number of isolated rural communities across Herefordshire.
The deployment forms part of stage 4 of Fastershire – a partnership between Herefordshire Council and Gloucestershire County Council aiming to improve connectivity in rural area. This stage of the project is funded by the Rural Broadband Infrastructure Scheme and managed by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs using the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE).
Airband is an independent internet service provider which specialises in bringing high speed broadband to homes, business and industry across rural and hard-to-reach areas.
The Worcester-based firm has a reputation for delivering high speed wireless broadband across difficult terrains, but for the Fastershire project, Airband is deploying its bespoke fibre broadband solution to 10 dispersed clusters of premises spread across the county.
RuralOptic is an FTTP (fibre-to-the premises) solution designed specifically for rural areas.
“Getting superfast fibre broadband to the harder-to-reach rural communities and businesses across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire will transform the opportunities and economic prospects for the area,” said Airband project manager, Martin Cumming.
Fastershire is bringing faster broadband to the county and currently over 87% of Herefordshire properties can access a 30mbps or greater service, increasing to 97% under phase 2, and for more of the harder to reach businesses, Fastershire is using bespoke grants to provide access.
To find out if your property can already access faster broadband or where your property sits in the Fastershire rollout, visit www.fastershire.com and use the address checker.
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