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A non-profit broadband provider has achieved its goal of raising £3 million through a crowdfunding operation that will allow it to expand its rollout of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology in remote parts of the UK.
Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) offers gigabit-capable connections to homes that would otherwise miss out on commercially-funded rollouts and has so far installed more than 3,000km of cabling across rural parts of Lancashire, Cheshire, Cumbria, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Yorkshire.
So far, it has around 6,000 live customers, but the new funding should help it progress towards its goal of connecting 20,000 properties in the coming years. However, the crowdfunding platform will remain open throughout the summer due to the level of interest in the ISP.
"The additional funding will enable B4RN to expand its network even further, to connect more villages and communities waiting to join the network more quickly and ensure rural areas need not be the poor relation when it comes to efficient broadband," the organisation stated.
As a community-funded, non-profit group, all profits generated by B4RN are invested back into local communities in a number of ways, such as providing internet to schools free of charge.
Among the rural customers to have already benefited from B4RN's FTTH broadband is the Traddock Hotel in the village of Austwick in the Yorkshire Dales. Until recently, the business' rural location meant it struggled to get high-speed broadband from any mainstream internet service provider and suffered from inefficient broadband for many years.
As 90 per cent of its bookings come via its website and online agencies, being able to keep information flowing through the website and payment and bookings systems is vital to its success. The majority of guest complaints also focused on poor Wi-Fi connectivity at the hotel.
Owner Paul Reynolds commented: "The changes that high-speed broadband has made to our business are incredible. Firstly, as almost all our business activities are web-based, it has made us much more efficient and fluid. The database we used to spend two hours a day backing up now takes just four seconds."
The ability to access cloud-based services has also saved the business more than £2,500 a year in IT costs, as it no longer has to install and maintain on-site equipment, while good connectivity also helps make the Traddock Hotel more attractive to guests.
