News from our partners: Celebrating new broadband technology in Caynham

News from our partners Airband

Internet service provider Airband hosted an event at Caynham village hall on Wednesday (17 October 2018) to mark the successful launch of RuralOptic – its pioneering new broadband technology, designed for rural areas.

The Caynham event

Residents of the village and project stakeholders were invited to an afternoon tea event at Caynham village hall, to enjoy tea and cakes and find out more about the innovative new broadband technology.

The village hall itself now has free Wifi, as part of Airband’s ongoing commitment to empowering rural communities and connecting community hubs within its project areas.

Councillor Nic Laurens at Caynham

Nic Laurens, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for economic growth, said:

“I’d like to say thank you to Airband and the people of Caynham for inviting me along to celebrate the arrival of superfast broadband in the village, and making me feel so welcome. Shropshire Council invests a lot of money and effort working to improve access to superfast broadband, and it’s nice to take time out to celebrate its arrival in such a picturesque part of the county.”

Airband launched Rural Optic in summer 2018 – a service which is capable of delivering broadband speeds of 100mbps and more to consumers.

Sandra Langdon, the first person in Caynham village to be connected via the new technology, said she was delighted with the service:-

“It’s a lot faster than I was getting with BT. And when I’m streaming it has made a big difference.”

Rural broadband specialist Airband has been working with Connecting Shropshire on a number of projects to boost broadband connectivity in the region.

Progress is going well creating a robust network infrastructure. Airband’s first transmitter site went live in December 2017, and it now has 27 transmitter sites live across Shropshire – with a further 50 transmitter sites in planning/construction.

This means that superfast broadband is already available to more than 6,000 premises. A further 4,000 premises will come live in the next six months.

Following the successful trials of RuralOptic at Caynham, Airband is shortly to be announced as a delivery partner for Herefordshire Council, deploying a RuralOptic network to deliver FTTP broadband connectivity to rural clusters in Ellesmere and Oswestry.