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No to Rural Broadband?

26 Jul 2011

News Update

Yarmouth Broadband, the community led high speed rural broadband project, has sadly not reached the minimum number of subscribers required for it to be launched and as a result the Island risks losing £80,000 of Government grants.

Brian Friend, Chairman of Natural Enterprise who secured the funding and hoped to run the service, said “More and more we are hearing about the importance of high speed broadband in rural areas on a national level, yet here we are, one of only four regions in the South East to have secured the funding and the community is telling us they don’t need it. We’re hoping this isn’t the case, but we’re not a big telecoms company and so we don’t have the luxury of starting the service up first without local support. All we ask is if people want the service they should sign up now.”

Yarmouth Broadband is a community project offering speeds 2-3 times faster than current providers and the more people who subscribe, the cheaper the service will become. Cash benefits have been set up to go to the local schools and there is no cap on download capacity, but importantly the service is professional and provided by local companies.

Graham Biss Managing Director of Natural Enterprise added “Rural broadband is one of Natural Enterprise’s key priorities and we’ve worked hard to get to this stage. Our aim was to set up the service in Yarmouth and then role it out across other rural areas on the Island, but this vision now looks in jeopardy. With demand on the internet increasing this new service and the equipment used would ensure Yarmouth and other areas are not left behind and are in a position to move with emerging technologies. But there must be a demand for it to go forward.”

The decision to go forward or not will be made on 4 August, any contracts received up until this date would be welcomed. For more information call Natural Enterprise directly on 550400