East Lancashire based Abbey Telecom has diversified to offer the service to businesses within radio reach of strategically placed transmitters on top of the region’s highest hills.
It is designed not only for rural businesses, but also those in industrial, suburban and metropolitan areas who currently experience lower transmission speeds and inconsistency with their broadband connectivity.
“It all comes down to physics and geography really,” explained Abbey Telecom managing director Tony Raynor. “We know that many businesses find that their broadband service can be hampered simply by their distance from the nearest telephone exchange.
“With radio broadband technology, we bypass heavy internet traffic travelling down traditional copper wiring lines. We can help improve download speeds for businesses at a fraction of the cost of a traditional fibre connection.
“Our radio delivery service is a huge boost to IT based productivity, giving businesses faster, more reliable broadband provision, often up to 100mbs per second. We have some customers who are even using it as a substitute to more costly leased fibre data circuits.”
The first businesses to take up the offer are – coincidentally – local radio stations The Bee and 2BR, which broadcast news and music along the M65 corridor from Colne to Chorley.
“With radio broadband, we put ourselves in direct touch with a transmitter which beams the service directly to our building,” said Simon Brierley, managing director of The Bee and 2BR.
“It’s really important when modern communications increasingly rely on things like video conferencing and large data transfers. It’s improving our IT productivity and giving us peace of mind when it comes to connectivity.”
The new radio broadband service is available to most Lancashire postcodes, even in rural areas.