For residents in the parish who still suffer from poor broadband, there may be a solution in sight. Airband is a different type of broadband and is transmitted through radio rather than the phone network, so can reach people who are stuck at the end of the phonelines.
Airband delivers speeds of 30Mbs download and 2Mbs upload. In layman’s speak, that’s fast enough to work from home in one room, while the kids stream music and watch online TV upstairs, without buffering!
The technology does rely on having a ‘line of sight’ to the local mast, but the company does a free desk survey, then a qualified engineer will visit to do a site survey to make sure that you get an excellent service, before any monies are taken. The expansion of the Airband network has been part fund by Shropshire Council through the Connecting Shropshire programme.
Airband’s prices start from £10 per month for a 10GB package, which is perfect for the lighter internet user, up to £42 for an unlimited homeworker package, so there’s something to suit everyone.
Low Usage: 2-10GB per month
Low Usage would typically encompass basic web browsing and emails. Basic web browsing could be made up of online shopping, banking, social networking and news reading.
Medium Usage: 10-30GB per month
In this instance, Medium Usage would generally include your typical web browsing, but also TV, Music and Film Streaming. Streaming is dependent on the quality of definition that you choose to stream TV programmes or films in, so for example, if your household streams two 1-hour programmes from BBC iPlayer per week, that could equate to sound 9.5GB of data per month.
High Usage: 30GB – Unlimited per month
High Usage would include the likes of all of the above, plus online gaming and/or film downloading. Games vary greatly in the amount of data that they use, so whilst some games could use 20MB per hour, some games can use anything up to 1GB per hour. The downloading of films also sucks up a lot of your data, one film in HD per week could use up to 20GB of data per month.
Airband also has business packages that can be tailored to meet individual companies’ needs.
Find out if your home or business is covered call 01952 980 123 or (if you can) check online: www.airband.co.uk/coverage
