Fibre in hills and glens
Specialist rural broadband provider Broadway Partners has teamed with comms equipment giant Nokia to bring broadband connections to isolated areas across Wales and Scotland.
Their joint mission was part of the Broadway’s Project Gigabit to connect the rustic areas of Wales and Scotland. Nokia provided a range of systems including Nokia fibre access nodes for an exchange and its WiFi6 Beacons, which broadcast fast, reliable broadband signals into homes and businesses. “Connecting rural communities is the lifeblood of Broadway, and we need partners that understand our mission and dedication to delivering that to our customers across Wales and Scotland,” said Broadway Partners CEO Steve Haines.
Haines praised Nokia’s understanding of the service needed by the community in order to meet its challenges: “Working with Nokia has been an essential part of our delivering connections to areas including the Isle of Arran and Powys, Pembrokeshire and Monmouthshire in Wales,” said Haynes. “We are excited to continue collaborating in 2023, and to helping deliver more connections and fibre broadband using its technology within our fibre infrastructure.”
The new business partnership was celebrated in person with a key discussion between senior management from both Broadway Partners and Nokia. Broadway highlighted key areas of growth for 2023 and the regional roll out plan across the full Broadway team. Meanwhile, Nokia gave details of a planned solution to the challenges faced by the Northern Lot of Scottish R100 including its product development focus.
“We are proud to partner with Broadway to help them deliver connections across Wales and Scotland and to see our technology being put to effective use in rural communities, even in the hardest to reach areas,” said Nokia UK CEO Phil Siveter. “Having quality broadband is an essential part of everyday life, and we know how much it will mean to many of these communities, residents and businesses to be able to access quality fibre broadband as a result of the work that Broadway delivers.”
Broadway is investing in Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) gigabit-ready infrastructure and will connect communities across rural areas of Wales and Scotland, it said. The areas already undergoing connections include the Isle of Arran off Scotland’s West Coast (see picture), Pembrokeshire, Monmouthshire and Powys in South and Mid Wales.