News archive: Tunstall Becomes the Next Gigabit Village

September 10th, 2015
Author: Chris Conder
Posted In: Archive News

More than three years on from the inaugural B4RN dig at the top of a windy hill in Lancashire, B4RN is still hitting the headlines and grabbing the attention of the major media companies.

This time it was coverage of the switch on of B4RN’s world famous gigabit fibre service in the small village of Tunstall, north-east of Lancaster. With a population of around 220, this village, like many others in rural areas had been suffering with poor broadband service. So they decided to do something about it and on Friday, September 4th, the village cabinet was made live and the first connection established.

The event was covered by BBC Breaskfast over the whole of the morning as part of their Rural Week series. It was a good report and several of the locals were interviewed live on air. There was only one gigabit/byte error by the reporter too, which was refreshing 🙂

Tunstall Launch Site Hits

As is usually the case following reports on the national media, there was an increased interest in B4RN, reflected in the site hits for the day. As can be seen here.

This report was one of many that had recently aired covering rural broadband in which representatives from B4RN had been asked to contribute. These included Radio 4 Today and the Jeremy Vine Show.

Rural broadband seems to be a hot topic at the moment and it’s great that B4RN are seen as a key player in that debate; even more surprising that media interest has remained constantly high despite a zero PR budget!

In case you missed it, here is the report. Well done and thank you to all the volunteers that have made this possible.

[vimeo width=”640″ height=”360″]https://vimeo.com/138290373[/vimeo]

Don’t forget!! The next Show-Tell day is on Tuesday 29th September. If you are a community that wants to know about rural broadband solutions, this is the event to be on.

**Update 22nd September**
The previous video was missing the interviews with the residents but thankfully some kind soul has captured it and uploaded for posterity. Watch the whole feature here.

[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]https://youtu.be/NY0J-J9vwjQ[/youtube]

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