Switched-on Sheila Joy has got the message – Herefordshire’s very own broadband system is up and running.

The churchwarden is one of the first subscribers to the system in its pioneering parish trial at Kingstone.

From an antennae on St Michael and All Angels next door, Sheila has sampled the super-speed service from county company allpay and is “very keen” on more.

She is not alone. About 100 users in the Kingstone area say the same and many others in surrounding parishes are watching closely.

Project manager Adrian Davies urged them to be patient, as allpay is coming as soon as it can.
“Right now, the system has shown it can work to a strong signal within a specific area”, said Mr Davies.

“We want to know what can work for other parishes and need as many expressions of interest as we can get, particularly where there is high ground.”

The Kingstone trial worked from the off last month and has been working well since.

Sheila says it’s been a huge boost to her day-to-day PC use, such as producing the parish newsletter. For others it is enough to just get up to speed.

The allpay plan uses church steeples as relay stations for a bespoke subscriber-based service specific to Herefordshire.

Hereford Diocese has faith in the plan but is waiting on the Anglican Church nationally to give its blessing, a decision expected by the end of the year.

Herefordshire Council is equally enthusiastic about the project, having long recognised a priority to improve the county’s broadband access.

Cabinet recently committed the council to exploring pilot areas, testing the potential for a community broadband network. A paper on approaches to addressing broadband issues should be ready by Christmas, followed by a public presentation of opportunities and funding options in February.

Whitehall and Westminster are watching too, with an eye on how the project might apply to rural communities across the country under the Digital Britain initiative.

Background

Herefordshire has a high number of “not spots” where broadband is either unavailable, intermittent or slow.

In July last year, Herefordshire Council’s community services scrutiny committee gave a tacit go-ahead to finding a local solution.

Members heard the county had little choice but to go it alone because BT probably wouldn’t meet the bill, claiming the options were not cost-effective.

Though BT has a national programme to improve access, it is prioritised on numbers of homes affected and the cost.

Figures put to the scrutiny committee suggested BT would have to spend more than £200,000 to upgrade a hamlet of just 10 homes for broadband.

The broadband project from allpay was pitched to the council in July after a lengthy trial in rural Italy. While the authority is enthusiastic, no commercial deal has been done.

In September, the Diocesan board governing the use of church buildings in the county offered support in principle for steeples being used as relay stations for the service. That support now needs to be shown nationally.

News story featured in the Hereford Times on December 10th 2009 and written by Bill Tanner.