The Church of England has provisionally agreed to let mobile network operators and wireless broadband providers retrofit towers and steeples with comms equipment, essentially turning them into ad-hoc masts. As 65 per cent of Anglican churches and 66 per cent of English parishes are located in rural areas, which typically suffer from poor mobile and superfast broadband coverage, the government wants church groups, where possible, to be able to contract for better connectivity with greater ease. DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport), the government department that's spearheaded the BDUK (Broadband Delivery for the UK) scheme, will generally act as a negotiator, helping to "facilitate discussion" between church groups and telcos, as well as generally providing "advice and resources". Culture Secretary, Matt Hancock said that the move should help churches regain some of their former status as enablers of news, communication and community: "Churches are central features and valued assets for local communities up and down the country. "This agreement with the Church of England will mean that even a 15th century building can help make Britain fit for the future improving people's lives by boosting connectivity in some of our hardest-to-reach areas." It's currently unclear is any public funds would be set aside specifically for this programme, or how it overlap with current plans to extend mobile and superfast broadband coverage beyond the current targets; the government wants superfast broadband to be made available to 98 per cent of the UK's population by 2020. Separately, Ofcom, the UK's telecoms regulator, had ruled that all mobile networks must provide download speeds of at least 2Mbps to 98 per cent of the UK's population, and 95 per cent of the population of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The idea of using church spires to facilitate wireless broadband is not exactly new. Since 2011, WiSpire has, with the support of the Diocese of Norwich, installed equipment at over 40 sites across Norfolk. The relatively flat Norfolk terrain means that the county's ideally suited for this technology type; other parts of the country, where hills or other tall buildings might impede the signal of any church-mounted hardware; residents of Cumbria and other more undulous parts of the country, might benefit from a more targeted approach. "Tower and spire of All Saints, Laughton" by Dun.can is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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The Church of England has provisionally agreed to let mobile network operators and wireless broadband providers retrofit towers and steeples with comms equipment, essentially turning them into ad-hoc masts. As 65 per cent of Anglican churches and 66 per cent of English parishes are located in rural areas, which typically suffer from poor mobile and superfast broadband coverage, the government wants church groups, where possible, to be able to contract for better connectivity with greater ease. DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport), the government department that's spearheaded the BDUK (Broadband Delivery for the UK) scheme, will generally act as a negotiator, helping to "facilitate discussion" between church groups and telcos, as well as generally providing "advice and resources". Culture Secretary, Matt Hancock said that the move should help churches regain some of their former status as enablers of news, communication and community: "Churches are central features and valued assets for local communities up and down the country. "This agreement with the Church of England will mean that even a 15th century building can help make Britain fit for the future improving people's lives by boosting connectivity in some of our hardest-to-reach areas." It's currently unclear is any public funds would be set aside specifically for this programme, or how it overlap with current plans to extend mobile and superfast broadband coverage beyond the current targets; the government wants superfast broadband to be made available to 98 per cent of the UK's population by 2020. Separately, Ofcom, the UK's telecoms regulator, had ruled that all mobile networks must provide download speeds of at least 2Mbps to 98 per cent of the UK's population, and 95 per cent of the population of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The idea of using church spires to facilitate wireless broadband is not exactly new. Since 2011, WiSpire has, with the support of the Diocese of Norwich, installed equipment at over 40 sites across Norfolk. The relatively flat Norfolk terrain means that the county's ideally suited for this technology type; other parts of the country, where hills or other tall buildings might impede the signal of any church-mounted hardware; residents of Cumbria and other more undulous parts of the country, might benefit from a more targeted approach. "Tower and spire of All Saints, Laughton" by Dun.can is licensed under CC BY 2.0.