Telecomms company looks set to banish broadband 'not-spots' near Narberth

When Simon Hart MP heard about superfast wireless broadband possibilities provided by Neyland company TFL, he knew that plenty of local villages would be interested in signing up.

He enlisted the help of Lampeter Velfrey’s county councillor, David Simpson, to drum up support and the local vicar, the Reverend David Hammon, to try to use the church tower to receive the signal.

“It’s still early days yet but an initial public meeting has shown that there is plenty of support for the project and we are very hopeful that we can get Lampeter Velfrey on superfast broadband,” said Mr Hart.

TFL gave a presentation at the meeting which explained that broadband speeds of up to 15Mbps could be “bounced” into the village via the company’s tower masts dotted around the county.

It is hoped that the tower of St Peter’s Church would host the main receptor – something that is already done at St David’s Cathedral.

Grants are available to those who have broadband speeds of less than 2mbps to pay for the infrastructure costs of getting the signal to the village and picking it up in your home. Customers then pay a monthly subscription to TFL for their wireless broadband instead of paying their current broadband provider for the slower service they receive via their phone line.

“There is a 100mbps broadband service that comes out of the ground in Carmarthen and we access that through our towers,” explained TFL managing director, Alun England.

“We already supply broadband for companies such as Valero and Friday Ads but we got into domestic business because there was so much demand for it. We were getting contacted by villages which couldn’t get an acceptable or viable broadband service.”

The company is already working on a project to bring wireless broadband to Princes Gate and will be joining the two schemes together.

“We want to make as many people as possible aware of the opportunity to get superfast broadband, so please do get in touch to register,” added Mr Hart.

*If you live close to Princes Gate or Lampeter Velfrey and would be interested in learning more about getting superfast wireless broadband please email: simon.hart.mp@parliament.uk.