Residents of Lyddington have fought back against the digital divide between cities and rural areas by creating a ground-breaking rural broadband service.
The village, located in the East Midlands county of Rutland, had previously been unable to receive high-speed Internet access from the UK's largest service providers. After years of campaigning, residents decided to take matters into their own hands and a small group of investors discovered a unique opportunity through a process known as subloop unbundling.
With backing from local residents - who collectively raised some £37,000 to fund the scheme - Rutland Telecom was created to provide speeds of up to 40Mbps in the area. In order to do so, the newly-founded telecommunications company worked with Openreach to lay fibre-optic cable to a newly-installed street cabinet equipped with super-fast broadband equipment.
The entire process took the best part of two years, but with the street cabinet installed, Rutland Telecom was able to work with BT and regulator Ofcom to gain access to the village's existing street cabinet. Connecting the two, Rutland Telecom is now able to receive high-speed broadband via fibre and pass that connection to residents using the copper network from BT's existing cabinet.
By dramatically cutting the length of the copper connection - which previously ran from local homes to the Uppingham BT exchange - residents are now said to be seeing speed increases from 0.5Mbps to over 25Mbps.
Rutland Telecom's service is currently offered at a rate of £30 per month including line rental, through which users get a free router, 24Mbps download speeds and a 10GB usage allowance. An extra 50GB allowance can be purchased at an additional cost of £10 per month, whilst speeds can be doubled to up to 48Mbps for an extra £20.
The early reception from residents appears to be hugely positive, with many now able to access web-based services that the majority of the nation takes for granted.
Commenting on the service, resident Mr Bart Taylor-Harris states "The broadband has transformed our lives! Video calls to my daughter and her family in the USA are now excellent with no break up of picture."
Lyddington's self-supported scheme has attracted attention from both media and other rural villages - with Rutland Telecom said to have been approached by at least 40 other rural villages seeking a similar solution.
