News & Events

B4RN Connections Still Being Made During Covid-19

April 21st, 2020
Author: Mark Gray
Posted In: Latest news

B4RN staff and volunteers are still working to connect new customers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

We’re classed as key workers by the government and understand and appreciate that broadband services have now become more essential than ever.

We’re helping keep communication channels open and active, while allowing households to work from home, order delivery services to the door, home school, and continue on with our daily lives.

One customer who’s grateful B4RN managed to connect her is Mihaiela Whing in Thelveton – part of of our East Anglia project.

She says she’d been struggling to do her job from home: “Before we had the B4RN connection installed, we’d had another provider for the last 8 years. I had worked form home before the lockdown and the connection was good, not had any issues, apart from a few hiccups over the years – which is expected, as nothing is perfect.

“Once I started to work from home as of 30th March 2020, well, things went downhill rapidly with the internet connection. The Wi-Fi connection dropped out a good number of times over the day. On 31st March, and following days, I tried to contact the old provider numerous times over the phone but due to the current circumstances this was to no avail. I managed to contact them online and I had a text message saying that in the next 2 days they’ll look into it. Nothing happened, the connection kept dropping out, and when the connection was on, the speed was very slow, to the point of crawling.

“This went on for a week and a half now, and has added unnecessary frustration to my workload. This is when we have contacted B4RN to resolve this situation as this couldn’t go on any longer.

“David Evans checked the cables and connections. Unfortunately things were not as straight forward as they have picked up on a fault in the cable. After 4 days of digging up trenches and checking, the internet connection went live, and I couldn’t be more happier. Never once dropped out and I can carry on with my work without having the added worry of an unreliable internet.”

“David and his team of volunteers were brilliant, they went above and beyond to help and make the connection, despite all the obstacles along the way. I can’t thank them enough for all their efforts.

“The newly installed fibre optic internet connection has made all the difference – no more sluggish internet, no more frustration for it dropping out numerous times a day, I can access all the softwares I use via VPN very quickly. Overall one happy customer!”

B4RN’s still committed to connecting new potential customers where it is deemed safe and reasonably practicable to do so whilst ensuring strict Social Distancing rules.

We aim to be as creative as possible when installing new services whilst maintaining quality and high standards, along with abiding by Government Guidelines and rules.

Methods such as DIY installation with engineer walk through instruction over the phone, to solo external fibre blowing and splicing have already been adopted.