Caerphilly county borough council has welcomed the move by Virgin Media to trial a new ultra-fast broadband service in one of the area’s outlying rural communities.
The village of Crumlin could see an increase in broadband speeds of up to 10 times thanks to the ground-breaking scheme.
Cllr Ron Davies, CCBC cabinet member for regeneration said, “It’s great to see that one of our communities has become the first in the UK to benefit from next-generation surfing speeds. A few years ago the Caerphilly county borough was one of the first areas to receive full broadband coverage when we worked with BT, so it’s great to see that we are leading the way with this new technology once again.”
Virgin Media will deliver the broadband service through cables using existing electricity poles rather than underground in a so-called ‘”aerial deployment’. An agreement has been reached with Surf Telecoms, a Western Power Distribution company, to use the electric lines and this trial is the first time existing commercial infrastructure has been used for ultra-fast broadband.
Virgin says it hopes that this type of non-traditional method of fibre delivery may help to accelerate the availability of next-generation broadband across the UK, particularly to broadband ‘not-spots’ in out of the way rural areas.
Local ward member Cllr Vera Jenkins added, “We are delighted that Crumlin has been selected to receive this exciting trial service and I hope the scheme will bring many benefits to businesses and residents in the village.”
