'Largest wireless broadband project' to provide superfast internet to national parks

Over 100 broadband masts are to be built and installed in two national parks in a bid to bring superfast internet to the rural areas.

Dartmoor and Exmoor will have these poles installed, subject to planning permission, to increase access to superfast internet across the moors.

The announcement comes from Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) which claims it is aiming to bring download speeds of 24Mbps to 95 per cent of Devon and Somerset by the end of 2017.

The project has faced lengthy delays from landscape campaigners who say that the masts will create an eyesore. However, supporters of the schemes say that the masts will appear more like telegraph poles and most of the broadband transmitters will be attached to existing buildings to "limit the visual impact to the moors".

A spokesman for Dartmoor National Park said: “Of the 40 or so transmission sites located on Dartmoor, many are on existing masts or buildings and only 20 or so require planning permission.

"The applications are for transmitters mounted on timber ‘telegraph’ poles, none of which exceed 12m in height.”

Somerset councillor David Hall, on the announcement of the plans, said: “It's the biggest wireless broadband project in England and will help transform businesses and the lives of thousands of people on the moors.

“The aim is to reach 5,800 homes, farms and businesses over an area roughly 1,646 sq/km using radios attached to masts or transmitters."

According to the telecoms and broadband regulator Ofcom, 48 per cent of rural wires are not capable of bringing high speeds of anything higher than 10Mbps in a report released in 2014.

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