Remotest farms could be connected by 2015

Some of Wales’ most remote rural farms are likely to have superfast broadband by 2015.

British Telecom’s Wales director, Ann Beynon, said it was almost certain that an extensive network of fibre-optic cabling would be in place in rural Wales within four years.

“If BT is successful in the procurement process we are confident we could roll this out by 2015,” she told Farmers’ Union of Wales members at the Royal Welsh Show.

The multi-million pound initiative would be bigger than the rural fibre-optic roll-out currently underway in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Like Cornwall, Wales is entitled to EU development funding.

FUW’s deputy president, Glyn Roberts, welcomed news of the initiative. “The FUW has been calling for improved broadband services for almost a decade. We want to see rural Wales becoming equally well connected to broadband as Cornwall,” he said.

For more from the Royal Welsh Show 2011, see our dedicated web page.