š³ Rural Community Fibre
Group together and get gigabit internet for your rural community funded by the government's Rural Gigabit Connectivity voucher scheme.
Helping you partner with a service provider to get faster broadband to your community or building.
Our Rural Community Fibre programme was created to help empower communities in need of Ultrafast internet to crowdsource support. By combining your relationships, knowledge, local support and enthusiasm with our technical expertise, engineering, professional support and sustainability, we can deliver the infrastructure you need, funded by the government.
What is Rural Community Fibre?
Rather than one person footing the bill, with Rural Community Fibre lots of people get together to split the cost of something ā in this case broadband infrastructure.
Raise the capital you need
We give your community/building the tools to build a customised fibre solution to bring fibre broadband to homes and businesses. We then help you establish the funding you need by helping you build the most affordable solution possible to meet your needs.
Finding the partner you need
Once funding requirements are established we advise on the level of grant you might be able to get to help pay for the build and connect you with the right service provider partner willing to help bridge any gap if one exists.
Impact
There is a diversity of benefits derived from the deployment of fibre, in areas or buildings that remain without the high-speed fibre broadband that is now available to the vast majority of people across the rest of the UK.
šAid
Helping tackling challenges associated with a lack of business investment, an ageing population and retaining a local workforce
š°Value
Economic value residentsā place on fibre broadband and increases in house prices derived from its availability
šEngage
Greater community engagement and well-being along with reduced isolation
š»Access
Access to an emerging set of healthcare and educational technologies and services
Rural Gigabit Connectivity Grants
There are currently two key government grant schemes rural communities or buildings can access in order to fund deployment of full fibre infrastructure.
Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme
As part of the Governmentās Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme business and residents in some of the hardest-to-reach places in the UK are eligible for additional funding towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband to their premises when part of a group project.
Grants
Eligibility
Rural premises with broadband speeds of less than 30Mbps can use vouchers worth up to Ā£3,500 for each small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), and up to Ā£1,500 per residential premise. to support the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections.
Access Broadband Cymru
This scheme is for Welsh group projects only. It gives people vouchers toward the costs of installing new broadband connections for homes and businesses.
Grants
Eligibility
For premises across Wales that are still unable to achieve a consistent broadband connection of 2Mbps or above and may not be served by the Superfast Cymru programme or where its roll-out has not yet commenced.
Rural Community Fibre group projects
Group projects are when two or more residents and/or SMEs get together to combine their vouchers towards the shared cost of installation.
It is possible to combine vouchers and boost the voucher value by joining together with other businesses or residents. This improves local infrastructure in areas where high-speed connections were previously unaffordable or unavailable, providing long-term service improvements and cost reductions. Our Rural Community Fibre project was created to help you and your neighbours make the most of your grant funding.
How to set up your own Rural Community Fibre project
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Register to let us know youāre interested in a Rural Community Fibre project (donāt worry, you arenāt committing to anything at this stage). Weāll then email you a reference number, and details of what will happen next.
Around 24 hours later weāll send you a second email with a link to a website. You can use this to fill in details of the addresses, postcodes and landline numbers of other local people who are interested in setting up the Partnership.
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This is when youāll need to start drumming up support in your area. Talk to your neighbours and local businesses about the benefits of fibre broadband. Our āreaching out to your local communityā leaflet provides some advice on how to do this. Or we can get involved directly ā just let us know.
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At this point weāll give you a ballpark project cost to bring fibre to your area. Weāll cover some of the costs, so the price in the quote will be what we call āthe gapā i.e. the amount we need to secure via Government funding as a part of the Rural Gigabit Scheme.
At this stage, weāll need you to tell us if you want to go ahead, or if youāve decided not to take things further (thereās still no obligation to do anything though).
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We will liaise with you to form a route plan and after several meetings, surveys, discussions, and cups of coffee would work to put together a package suitable to submit to the government.
All of the above takes a lot of work to get together and into a workable package, Telcom has been, and will always be meticulous in supporting your planning and costings to ensure you get the best possible outcome for your buildings or communities.
Start a group project
Complete the form below to tell us you are interested in starting a group project in your area.
Supporting your Group
With our Rural Community Fibre programme Telcom helps communities create, submit and support Project Registered Schemes under the applicable grant scheme. Hereās how:
- Lots of experience under previous schemes designing and delivering projects that meet the eligibility criteria of the scheme.
- Dedicated design team to work through the discovery, occupier interaction and scheme application process.
- Harnessing our wireless expertise, we can deliver projects that have multiple buildings such as business parks quicker and provide longer term more flexible infrastructure projects.
Why choose WeFibre for your Rural Community Fibre
šBespoke design
We design networks completely from scratch so they work for you and your community.
šØComplete installation
We guarantee quick installations that are managed internally by our technicians.
šFully maintained
Your network is maintained by our team, who will provide you with around the clock support.
š”Expert support
Our friendly team will be available for any questions you have. So you don't have to worry.
We have worked closely with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (who operate the scheme) for over a year in order for us to access and maximise the potential of vouchers for groups.
