Beacons Telecom are very pleased to have been chosen by the communities of Llangors, Pennorth and Llanywern to bring them into the 21st century with Ultrafast Fibre Broadband. Assisted by Powys County Council, a team of volunteers have evaluated a number of technologies and suppliers and chosen Beacons Telecom.

The project is being funded by the UK Government’s Gigabit Voucher Scheme (GBVS) and will deliver broadband speeds of up to 1 gbps to around 200 properties in the area.

A community project has brought high-speed broadband to rural homes and businesses in Powys – in just ten months. A small group of residents from around Llangors lake began discussions with provider Beacons Telecom in February. The first property was connected to full fibre broadband on Friday 19th November and a further 130 homes and businesses will now follow. The local initiative took just 10 months to deliver and was funded by Government gigabit vouchers.

A spokesperson for the group which led the scheme, said: “Residents and businesses around Llangors lake have had to put up with very slow internet speeds for years, making the simplest of online tasks difficult or impossible.
This at long last brings them into the 21st century and is a great example of the effectiveness of the local community working together with a local business to bring about real benefits for the whole community. The fact that this has been achieved within ten months from the first discussions to live installations is astonishing, considering that a completely new network has had to be built.”

Early discussions between residents, including members of Llangors Community Council, began last Autumn. The group’s aim was to see fibre broadband installed in all villages and properties surrounding the lake.
With the help of Reece Simmons, Community Broadband Officer at Powys County Council, a number of potential providers were contacted.

In February the group decided to work with Beacons Telecom, a local company based in Glanusk Estate, Crickhowell. Company owner Trevor Mosedale was keen to work with the community to reach as many people as possible. Flyers were then delivered to all homes around the lake asking interested parties to register their names. Within three weeks 130 residential and business premises had signed up to the proposed service. Each eligible property received a £3000 voucher from the ‘gigabit’ scheme, while businesses received £7000. The funding came from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and Welsh Government.

The total voucher amount of roughly £450,000 gave Beacons Telecom the confidence to start building infrastructure immediately, before the scheme funding was formally approved. The first connection to high-speed broadband was made in the village of Pennorth last week. Over the next few months Beacons Telecom will connect the remaining homes and businesses as they continue building infrastructure around Llangors lake. For residents living in properties eligible for a voucher,  installation of the high-speed broadband is completely free, including wi-fi routers. In return they sign up for a 12 month contract.

Download speeds of up to 1000Mbps and upload speeds in excess of 100 Mbps are available in different packages. People can also transfer their landline phone number to the new service. With Beacons Telecom packages being very competitively priced everyone benefits, the community and the company. People whose homes are not eligible for vouchers may be asked to pay an installation charge.

We plan to extend our network to cover the village of Llanfihangel and already have significant interest. Our prices are extremely competitive compared to that of big providers and this is one of the main reasons why so many residents and businesses are switching to us, a local provider, for far better deals!

Anyone in the area not yet signed up but who would like the new high speed broadband service from Beacons Telecom should contact them to see if they are eligible for a voucher. Beacons Telecom is rapidly expanding its network to cover an ever growing number of towns and villages in South Powys, working with local communities to bring high speed fibre broadband to homes and businesses.