High Speed Langtoft

The East Riding of Yorkshire has taken a step nearer to becoming a digital county with the announcement that the village of Langtoft has been successful in its bid to obtain grant funding to connect approximately 70 village residents and businesses to a broadband internet service.

The Langtoft telephone exchange is one of the 22 rural exchanges throughout Yorkshire and Humber that will not be “enabled” to allow broadband access. The grant has been provided by Yorkshire Forward from its Rural Community Broadband Fund set aside to finance the installation of broadband networks in rural communities not otherwise served.

Mark Firth, Rural Renaissance Manager of Yorkshire Forward, said “we are delighted to work with Langtoft and support financially the development of a local broadband network."

The installation of the Langtoft network will be carried out by Langtoft.net, an organisation set up and initially funded by local business, Cambrai Covers, who provided finance for a pilot scheme and technical staff to carry out a feasibility study.

Following a door to door questionnaire and an evening presentation at the Ship Inn, Langtoft, held in early October 2004, the Langtoft.net team received such an excellent response to the proposal that they could finalise the grant application that would enable the pilot scheme to be expanded to the whole village and surrounding community. This includes the village of Butterwick, which is also a part of the Langtoft exchange.

Martyn Boswell, Technical Director of Langtoft.net said “We are very grateful to Mark Firth at Yorkshire Forward for guiding us through the grant bid and also to the community of Langtoft for the overwhelming response we have received. Now that we have completed the paperwork we have the physical installation to carry out, but our team is very enthusiastic about the work we have to accomplish.”

Langtoft.net has already begun the roll-out of Phase 1, which is to install the base stations to carry the broadband signal around Langtoft village. They hope that this phase will be completed in late January. Phase 2, which will connect the residents of Langtoft to the broadband network, will proceed immediately thereafter. Everyone that has completed a registration form will be contacted during the next few weeks.

Langtoft.net intend to keep everyone informed of progress at regular intervals via the website www.langtoft.net or by contacting Langtoft.net by telephone 01377 267 426 or email to info@langtoft.net.

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