B4RN community broadband project breaks ground in Norfolk

Those living in remote, rural parts of Norfolk will finally be gaining access to superfast broadband services after a recently formed community group, B4RN East Anglia, started construction of their new crowdfunded FTTH network.

The group is part of the larger Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) project, which is focused on getting volunteers to contribute to building broadband networks delivering speeds of 1000Mbps and up for some of the most hard-to-reach homes in Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire.

Trenches and ducts for the cables will be dug by local volunteers in each area, with all profits from the scheme going back into the community or paying for maintenance of the network.

Customers then only have to pay £30 per month for an unlimited service offering speeds of up to a gigabit, following a one-off connection fee of £150 and a 1 month rolling contract.

B4RN has so far connected 3,800 live properties in some of these isolated communities, with the group saying they hope to reach around 5,000 connections by Summer 2018

The East Anglia project, which was kicked off by volunteers this week, is centered on the villages of Scole and Billingford, which are around 20 miles south of Norwich. They are home to a total of around 3,000 people and are only partially covered by Openreach’s FTTC network, which offers speeds of “up to” 80Mbps.

Michael Davey, who is the regional director for B4RN’s East Anglia chapter, said that he was happy to share the “exciting” news of the project’s start.

He added: “B4RN was created entirely from the needs of the community, from people coming together and saying enough is enough, we’ve got to do something about rural broadband. B4RN East Anglia was what the community set up to deliver it for this region.”

David Evans, also of B4RN East Anglia, said that over 130 villages in the region had expressed an interest in starting a similar project, with funding pots for Thelveton, Shimpling and Gissing already open.