The inside scoop on Airband’s broadband river crossing

Just below the pretty market town of Bridgnorth, is the sleepy, picturesque hamlet of Hampton Loade.

The River Severn cuts right through the village, its banks coated in gorgeous Autumn leaves of red and ochre and gold at this time of year.

On the eastern bank of the river, residents already have access to Airband’s fibre to the premises broadband – with speeds of up to 150Mbps.

Meanwhile, the poor relatives on the western side of the river were struggling to even muster up broadband speeds of 2Mbps. There was buffering and suffering and gnashing of teeth among the ‘have-nots’.

So, Airband project team, fibre planners and engineers had to put their heads together to come up with a plan that would give residents on both sides of the river access to brilliant fibre optic internet.

Of course, pulling something like this off is no mean feat – and it required a lot of planning and preparation.

A military-style operation to bring fibre optic internet

Shropshire project manager, Claire Hollier, briefed her team. Everything was in place for a drone flyover – with the hand-operated airborne craft set to carry the fibre optic cable from one side of the river to the other.

But as D-day approached, it became clear that it would be easier to take the fibre optic internet cable across the river with the assistance of a local canoeing club.

Rural broadband rescue projects are rarely without a dose of drama and heavy rainfall meant that the river was swelling, and the water levels were rising quickly.

Cue urgent Sunday evening calls to the canoeing club…

Richard and Russell of Canoe UK Ltd, raced down to the river to do their canoe river crossing before the river rose too high. Using a special technique, they were able to cross the fast-moving river and take a draw rope over from the eastern bank to the western bank, ready for the Airband engineers to send the cable across on Monday morning.

Overcoming the challenges of the river crossing

“Normally, a commercial operator would stop at an obstacle like a river, but Airband is committed to bringing broadband to rural areas. We’re determined to make sure that people in rural areas have access to good broadband,” said Airband civil engineer Graeme Fletcher.

“We set up tackles on both sides of the river and attempted to pull the fibre optic cable through. We encountered a few challenges – we couldn’t access the telegraph pole very easily on the other side of the river – but a local resident helped us with that,” explained Graeme.

“We then attached the fibre optic cables to the draw rope. And we’ve pulled it through to the other side of the river, leaving the coils from splices ready to join up. Next, I’ll go over to the other side of the river and continue the fibre run down to the next collection point.”

Installing fibre broadband

Work is now nearly complete on the western side of the river – and as people eagerly start switching to fibre broadband, Airband engineers will be out and about installing fibre broadband and opening up a whole new world for residents and businesses in the community.

Thanks to Airband, and all those who helped make it possible, the people in this rural community will be able to work easily and successfully at home and enjoy their online leisure activity more.

What’s next for Airband?

“We’re busy rolling out fibre networks across more clusters in Shropshire,” explains Claire.

Want to find out if you can enjoy a rocket-fast Airband connection? Check out our broadband coverage checker.

Images and footage within this video are credited to Paul Elton Photography, and this video itself is an Airband in-house production

Airband’s fibre roll-out in Shropshire is delivered in partnership with the Connecting Shropshire programme