Broadening bandwidth for a transformative effect

The village of Meopham in Kent lies on the dip slope of the North Downs. A bustling village with shops, businesses and houses it is served with exceptional infrastructure that now includes that essential utility, fast, reliable broadband. 

Despite the availability of fibre broadband from eight exchanges in and around Meopham and the close proximity of the green telecoms cabinet, broadband connection for a number of residents was down a telephone line coming into the house over old copper wire attached to a telegraph pole. The national average for fibre to cabinet connection is around 50 megabits per second (Mbps), but for local resident, Gavin Davies, the top speed was nearer to 20Mbps.

Working full-time from home and with two young adults in the house consuming TV, YouTube, Netflix and iPlayer as well as gaming, the family was struggling to get sufficient bandwidth to suit their needs at any time of the day. 

Technology-savvy Gavin had noticed some vans in the area of local broadband supplier, Call Flow.  It was when a representative knocked on the door to discuss the idea of gigabit-capable broadband that Gavin found out about the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. Having rejected the idea previously due to cost, the voucher scheme tipped the balance in favour of agreeing to install this faster and more reliable connectivity to the property. 

Once the simple application process had taken place, the physical connection was straightforward and the service from the provider exceptionally thorough. Gavin commented: “I signed up to a 300Mbps fibre broadband package and regularly check the speed. From day one it has been as promised along with the advertised upload speed of 100Mbps. We are future-proofed in that if we require an even faster connection we can renegotiate our contract up to as high as a gigabit (1,000 megabits per second), but for now we have sufficient bandwidth for streaming, gaming and working. We are even using Facetime for calls rather than the landline.”