A new project aimed at improving rural broadband for 40,000 people and more than 2,500 businesses in the rural West Midlands has been launched.
The announcement on Friday, which headlined the Rural Regeneration Zone's fifth annual conference, was made by Ludlow MP Philip Dunne and involves a new agreement with Worcester-based Airband Community Internet to provide high speed coverage across towns in Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire.
Benefiting from a £200,000 investment from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), it is anticipated that the pilot will provide universal 2mb wireless broadband access across a 40-square mile area between Leominster, Ludlow and Tenbury Wells.
There are also plans to offer companies in the area a 10mb service, it was announced.
Peter Pawsey, executive chair of the Rural Regeneration Zone, said: "The lack of available and reliable high-speed broadband has been identified as a barrier to economic development in rural areas and this has already been earmarked as an issue to be tackled by the new Coalition Government.
"With this in mind, I am delighted that - even in today's times of austerity - we are able to bring a long-term plan to fruition by launching one of the largest rural broadband projects of its type in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ and a potential solution that could be rolled out across the rural West Midlands and even further afield."
