Fed up with Internet speeds of 4Mbps, villagers in Michaelston y Fedw, west of Newport, decided to sort it themselves, says the Welsh Government – and how.
By clubbing together their resources to form a so-called Community Interest Company, they’ve managed to bring ultrafast Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) broadband to fellow residents and local businesses – with an upload and download speed of more like 1Gbps, or a thousand Mbps.
The community project used contractors to do some of the work, while teams of volunteers have taken part in activities such as digging chambers, fibre splicing, laying out ducts and fitting out the village’s communications hub, says the Assembly.
Villagers raised the money required to build the network in the knowledge that once built, the connections would be eligible to be funded by the Welsh Government’s Access Broadband Cymru scheme or Ultrafast Connectivity Voucher once the speeds had been reached. Both schemes are available for premises which cannot currently access superfast broadband.
The village pub, community hall and church are already connected to the ultrafast broadband and work is underway to connect over 175 premises in total.
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Leader of the House with responsibility for digital Julie James noted that, “It’s great to see how the community of Michaelston-y-Fedw have spotted an opportunity to use the Welsh Government’s voucher scheme along with real community spirit to achieve an increase in broadband speed which is a real game-changer.
“They are now able to benefit from some of the fastest internet speeds in the UK, which is a credit to all those involved in this project.”
“This has been achieved through a huge amount of effort by local volunteers who have turned out in all weathers to help build our network,” added a director of the Michaelston y Fedw Internet Community Interest Company, David Schofield.
“Without them, the support of landowners, the village hall, local investors and the Welsh Government grant schemes this would never have got off the ground. We now have internet speeds that are world class, and this makes all the effort worthwhile.”
