Churches to double up as broadband routers in the south-west

Church buildings in the south-west are going to be used as wireless hotspots to help spread broadband access in rural areas, it has been announced this week.

Diocese of Bath and Wells has raised concerns that some remote parts of the region are not going to be covered by commercial broadband rollouts or the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) and Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) project. Instead, they have decided to launch a new parish-led community broadband project in Somerset that will turn places of worship into places of broadband access as well.

The CDS project has a target of covering 90 per cent of the two counties by 2016, leaving some of the more rural and hard-to-reach places without superfast broadband. The Diocese of Bath and Wells aims to fill that gap.

Richard Tulloch from the diocese said: "While the progress made so far by CDS is commendable, what of the remaining 10 per cent? Our churches exist to serve everyone in the local community and be at the very heart of community life."

"There is no better way to demonstrate this than using our towers - typically the tallest buildings in rural areas - to complement the roll-out of superfast broadband in our county."

Two pilots schemes are being launched in Ashbrittle, near Wellington, and the coastal plains of the Somerset Levels to see if the idea is viable. By connecting wireless access points to the exterior of the local churches they will be able to relay a broadband signal across the nearby area, thus delivering broadband to people otherwise without it.

Tulloch added: “Our churches exist to serve everyone in the local community and be at the very heart of community life. There is no better way to demonstrate this than using our towers – typically the tallest buildings in rural areas – to complement the roll out of superfast broadband in our county.”

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