Scotland: National Rural NetworkIn this article you can find out how an East Ayrshire village is providing free broadband internet access. Where did they get funding? What challenges have they faced? And what successes have they acheived?
As our village is very isolated, communication is our priority, especially now due to the village having no permanent essential and non essential services. We decided the most useful action would be to provide the local community and visitors free broadband internet access, utilising laptops in our community centre and free wifi broadcast throughout the village allowing the connection to be shared even when the centre is shut.
Rankinston is in East Ayrshire, approximately 12 miles south east of Ayr. It is a small ex mining village mainly comprising of local authority housing. We are at the end of a road, which can be an issue as we do not have passing through traffic.
The Rankinston Community Association is responsible for provision of the service, which then empowers secondary usage by Community Learning and Development and the local primary school. The association is made up a small band of local residents, supported by a community worker from East Ayrshire Council.
The Coalfields Regeneration Trust provided a grant for laptops and the wifi equipment, the connection itself is paid for by The Minerals Trust via successful grant applications
The assistance of our MSP and local councillors and local residents who raised letters of recommendation to the grant authorities was imperative to securing the grant. We approached the Coalfields Regeneration Trust with a detailed proposal, and brought them out to the village to look round and see for themselves just how isolated we are, and what a great help their relatively small amount of money could make before we filled out the application form. We found all the information we needed to set up the system itself on the internet.
Obtaining the funding, without which the project would have been impossible. We now have a total of 14 available computers (including ten laptops funded by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust), which are all in use when we have supervised computer drop in for the youth of the village. We have also set up SKYPE nights, which are popular with the older members of our community for keeping in touch, face to face, with ex Rankinston residents, friends and family.
The Digital Britain bill, which in its current form might make it difficult for the service to continue.
Surprisingly the primary legislation controlling wifi broadcasting does not apply if the service is provided free-of-charge, and a modest broadband aerial and transmitter costs under £500 and plugs straight into any existing hub. We would also recommend talking to the funding body you are approaching, as they have a mass of knowledge, and are there to support and help in any way they can.
We are sourcing solar-powered wifi repeaters, which work in the same way as modern solar-powered road signs. By mounting three of these on lamp-posts we intend to expand the footprint of the wifi signal to the entire village.
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