Diocese of Hereford's leap of faith provides rural broadband boost

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Communities

A leap of faith has given residents of rural Herefordshire a major broadband boost.

In a UK first, the Diocese of Hereford has approved a model broadband licence that will allow equipment to be installed on church towers.

This marriage of medieval technology with the 21st century will enable Herefordshire-based company allpay to build a 4MB wireless broadband network using the towers as transmitters.

With the model licence in place, a test system allpay trialled in the village of Kingstone over a year ago is now available to every parish in the county.

Both the Diocese and allpay believe the network will complement whatever broadband service is delivered through the Government-backed BDUK pilot scheme, funding for which was announced during the Comprehensive Spending Review in October.

With one eye on the pilot, allpay is already in talks with a potential partner over fibre optic options for the service and is pitching to OFCOM to be an official telecommunications operator.

Anni Holden, Communications Director for the the Diocese of Hereford, said the service was a "breakthrough" for a county where many were still struggling with dial-up access to the web.

"(The diocese) has been here for more than a thousand years, and already supports a very radical strategy to the modern use of our historic buildings, leading the way within the Church of England. This is an extension of that policy," she said.

allpay boss Tony Killeen said the work his company had done with the Diocese was "very much" an example of the Big Society in action.

"Two local organisations have come together to tackle a problem facing thousands of people in our community," he said.

The model licence has taken nearly a year to agree, but ensures that historic churches can embrace the system's equipment appropriately for Grade I and Grade II* listed buildings.

Each church will have to apply for its licence individually, Peterchurch is likely to be next followed by Madley and Wellington over the next few months.

With the model licence in place many more parishes that previously expressed an interest will be looking to go live, there is even the possibility of a receiver on Hereford Cathedral tower.

Over the New Year churches across the diocese are going to get clear instructions on how they can get involved by approving the idea through their parochial church councils. allpay will then help with and pay for the legal licence process and install the equipment.

Editor's note: Thanks to Bill Tanner from The Hereford Times for allowing us to use excerpts from his original story.