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Rural Broadband

Natural Enterprise is working on an opportunity in the Yarmouth Telephone Exchange area (including Ningwood, Wellow, Thorley, Westhill and Yarmouth) to help them achieve high speed broadband enabling residents and businesses the ability to access speeds of up to 24Mbs.

The project, thanks to the partnership working of Natural Enterprise, Navigate IT and Telecom, Yarmouth Town Council, Yarmouth Business Association, Yarmouth Harbour Commissioners and Country Land & Business Association has successfully made it through to the final stage to receive Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) funding which has been specifically set aside for rural areas. The allocation of this funding is on a competitive basis and the applicants are asking residents and businesses to complete a short online questionnaire to register their support.

GIVE YOUR SUPPORT BEFORE 31 AUGUST! CLICK HERE NOW

Natural Enterprise see this as a real opportunity not only for the Yarmouth area but for the rest of the Island too. This initial work forms part of our drive to bring high speed Broadband to all the rural areas on the Island. Opportunities like this don’t come along very often and Natural Enterprise see this as key for the Isle of Wight as a whole to support this essential lifeline for businesses and communities alike.

If the bid is successful a not for profit Community Interest Company will be set up to deliver the project and to look at other areas on the Isle of Wight where demand for high speed broadband has been identified.

Currently the Isle of Wight’s achievable maximum Broadband Speed is just 7.5mbs with few households having this speed. This project will enable us to increase the maximum speed to 24mbs, which won’t be available to everyone as much will depend on your proximity to the exchange, but we do intend to provide a minimum speed of 6mbs.

The process of moving to the high speed broadband package from current providers will be relatively easy to do (subject to current contracts) and all customers will receive professional, reliable support.

A dedicated website has been set up for people to register their support for the Yarmouth Exchange and to identify other areas on the Isle of Wight where focus can be aimed in the future. For more information on this project and to register your support visit www.makeyarmouthfaster.com or call Graham Biss at Natural Enterprise on 01983 535888.

Natural Enterprise would like to acknowledge the businesses who have given their valuable support to this initiative:
Navigate IT and Telecom
Yarmouth Town Council
Yarmouth Harbour Commissioners
Yarmouth Business Association
Country Land and Business Association
Kingston and Grist
Laurence Mitchell Jewellers