Last school in Wales to get fast broadband over the summer holidays

The Ysgol Llanychllwydog school in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire will become the last school in Wales to get broadband internet over the summer holidays, just in time for the next academic year.

Presently, its 22 students are forced to wait for half an hour for web pages to load, while videos often refuse to load at all.

However, now that fibre optic cables have been laid down on a 15-mile route from Haverfordwest, the school will finally have access to ultra-fast broadband.

Senior project manager at Openreach, Matthew Lovegrove, said: “We’ve had to plough 1.5 miles of new trench to put new duct in, we’ve had to put new poles and had to span the cable between 50 poles as well, so a real variety of challenges.

“The product is limitless in terms of speed. It’s gigabit-capable, that means they can download music, interactive learning et cetera, and it will be instant for them.”

Not only will the school benefit from the upgrade, but the wider community will also be able to tap into the new broadband as a result of the cables being laid, Lovegrove added.

“We are looking to work with local government and residents to expand that fibre footprint to as much of the village as possible.

“They’ll be able to access the high speed of broadband and again get all the benefits from that.”

The Welsh Government has pledged £13.8 million towards broadband connectivity for schools, which is one of its priorities.

Welsh education minister, Kirsty Williams, commented: “Because of the challenging topography, that we are familiar with, it has taken rather a long time to make sure that every school is equipped with the broadband speeds that they need.

“This means that schools will have the external infrastructure that they need to deliver our exciting new curriculum and I hope to be making an announcement shortly on further investment on kit and equipment inside schools.”