Press release: Empingham and Whitwell project
Distribution: local media
Distribution date: 4th August 2010
Local Rutland Communities Invest For the Future into High Speed Broadband

Local people from the villages of Empingham and Whitwell in Rutland have invested £10,000 in a high speed broadband project, which is scheduled to go live in the autumn.
The project is led by rural broadband specialists Rutland Telecom who recently implemented the UK’s fastest next generation broadband service in the nearby village of Lyddington, connecting 200 homes with speeds of over 40Mbps rivalling most urban provision.
Several businesses in the villages have already signed up but the emphasis over the next couple of months is to get more local people to join the Rutland Telecom scheme and enjoy the high speeds of up to 48Mbps, averaging around 15-20 Mbps, over three times faster than BT.

David Lewis managing director of Rutland Telecom said: “The scheme started with the help of initial investors but we still need more people to sign up to make it work. In many countries high speed broadband is regarded as essential for businesses and residents, with streaming HD TV, films, internet phone, video conferencing and other digital online services taken for granted.”

Local village activists in Empingham organised a village hall meeting and produced and circulated leaflets as well as raising initial capital.
“It’s a fantastic example of a community working with a small innovative private company to solve a problem and to bring about economic and social benefits which would otherwise not happen”, said David Lewis.

One of the four Empingham and Whitwell investors Nick Meyrick said; “We held a publicised ‘open meeting’ in the Audit Hall, which was well attended with very good feedback.
“A second leaflet was designed to explain the importance of looking to the future. Rutland Telecom offer almost unlimited spare capacity compared with current providers and we wanted to emphasise the benefits of this kind of next generation connection.
“The word is spreading and local businesses are realising that Rutland Telecom has considerable savings on offer as well as speeds 3 to 4 times faster than the current service..”

Following the Lyddington broadband service, Rutland Telecom has had a large number of enquiries from around the UK and has completed over 20 feasibility studies where deployment of super fast broadband technology would be financially viable.
In order to finance these projects Rutland Telecom has devised a business model which allows communities to invest and offers a better return than any high street bank.
David Lewis said, “Rutland Telcom’s offer gives a 5% return to each investor year on year for three years plus a bonus dividend linked to the profitability of the company. At the end of the three year period the original capital is returned.
“Investment always has an element of risk but we minimise this by insisting on a threshold of users signed up in advance to ensure it is profitable from day one. Because broadband is such a necessity and speeds are so slow in rural areas, we see demand for our community model.”

Rutland Telecom is asking other Rutland villages interested in receiving superfast broadband to register on its website. Between 35 and 50 registrations are required to trigger an upgrade to the exchange.
The remaining seven exchanges in Rutland are Morcott, (also covering the villages of Seaton, Harringworth, Barrowden), North Luffenham (Ketton, South Luffenham, Edith Weston) Manton (Lyndon, Preston, Wing), Cottesmore (Greetham, Exton), Belton (Allexton, Launde) Thistleton
(South Witham, Market Overton), Whissendine (Edmonthorpe, Teigh).
Completion of the project will see Rutland as the first county in the UK to have 100 per cent Next Generation broadband coverage across the region.
Rutland Telecom also scooped top slot at the FSB Small Business Awards 2010 for Leicestershire, Northants and Rutland County at a ceremony in July.
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