Inch Perfect B4RN Connection For Bike Store
January 29th, 2021
Author: Mark Gray
Posted In: Latest news
Inch Perfect Trials at Whitewell is revving up its business thanks to B4RN’s gigabit broadband.
The trials bike store, connected as part of the Dunsop Bridge project, now has a reliable full-fibre connection.
It means the business can really get a handle on its online sales – a crucial development during the shop’s Covid-enforced closures.
Matthew Alpe from Inch Perfect Trials said: “When Inch Perfect Trials first started the business in Whitewell, we were working with ½ a megabit of internet and we had to go outside with the card machine to try and get a transaction to go through!
“Over the years we have got increasingly better internet, albeit slow and unpredictable at times. Now we have B4RN internet which is a total game changer! All our systems are online including our phones which run through the internet so with the instalment of B4RN, there is no drop out and the staff can work more efficiently.”
Trials bikers are no strangers to obstacles and there was a little bump getting Inch Perfect live. Their fibre had to be re-blown after it was inadvertently broken during the installation of their new ‘pay and play‘ area and other upgrades to their trials biking facilities.
B4RN’s Cath Halstead said the determination to get them live is part and parcel to the project: “It’s brilliant how the local Community has come together to help plan, design, fund and build this Network. The Dunsop Bridge Community have become a great Volunteer Team and the landowners in the area, including United Utilities and the Duchy of Lancaster, have been incredibly supportive in allowing the B4RN Network across their land. Everyone’s commitment to this Community Project has enabled B4RN to plan and build across miles of land to bring the B4RN Network to Dunsop Bridge and beyond.
“The Plan, developed by Edward Wilman our B4RN Network Mapper and Planner for the Project, covered some difficult ground and some interesting challenges and working with the local knowledge of the Group, Landowners, Farmers and the Contractor and Digging Teams these have been overcome. A great team effort”
Local parish councillor Steven Bennett is a B4RN volunteer champion: “Supporting all our local rural businesses in the valley is so important. Inch Perfect have done really well building a business on experience days and bike maintenance. During lockdown they shifted direction to online sales.
“It’s all thanks to this close-knit community. Our aim is to service more rural properties that have such poor internet service. We still have further routes to build, including connecting the Inn at Whitewell and on to villages of Newton and Slaidburn. Hopefully lockdown restrictions may have eased by then and we will be able to celebrate in style.”
Steven added B4RN couldn’t have come soon enough given the times we’re living in: “Since all the Covid restrictions, more and more people are being forced or encouraged to work from home. It was causing our existing connections to buffer and sometimes fail. Now that we have B4RN all these issues have been resolved.
“Some of our more rural neighbours, farmers and sole traders rely on the internet to do tasks such as email, internet banking and stream television. As there is no mobile signal in the area, it is even more important for them to have a good connection. At best they have dial-up speed or nothing at all.”
*
Want a B4RN connection? Why not see if you can Get B4RN?
Customer Testimonial
We’re award winners!
