THANKS largely in the main to European funding; Cornwall is one of the best-connected counties in the country with over 95% of properties able to access superfast broadband and over 30% able to reach speeds in excess of 100Mbps — or ultrafast broadband.

This, however, is small consolation to the many rural homes and businesses that struggle on a day to day basis with very slow connections delivered to properties down miles of copper wires that are exposed to the elements and give a very slow and unreliable service.

Up until now, the only alternative for remote properties that are unlikely to ever get a direct fibre cable, has been a satellite installation.

While these might be an improvement on some standard connections, they often do not feel quick in operation, due to a slight delay in information travelling such vast distances, and can also be quite expensive to run.

However, with the dramatic increase in coverage of 4G mobile signal in the county, a third choice is now available.

Liberal Democrat Cornwall Councillor Dominic Fairman, who represents the rural parishes of St Teath, St Breward, Michaelstow and Advent, said: “In August I attended a demonstration of a home 4G mast which delivered very fast speeds to a remote farmhouse on Bodmin Moor using a standard mobile sim-card from one of the mobile networks.

“I immediately lobbied Superfast Cornwall to see if this new type of equipment could be included in the Better Broadband Subsidy Scheme so that remote properties could take advantage.”

Households and businesses can take advantage of the Scheme if they meet the following three criteria:

l Your home or business is not currently able to access a broadband download speed of at least 2Mbps.

l There are no alternative affordable broadband services available to you, which would provide a download speed of at least 2Mbps.

l There are no plans to provide superfast broadband to your location within 12 months of the application.

Cllr Fairman continued: “I have just had the technology installed on our farmhouse and am pleased to say that we now have a very fast reliable connection to the Internet. The equipment will take a sim-card for any of the big networks, and the prices of mobile data are dropping all the time.”

If you would like to contact Cllr Fairman to ask about his personal experience and details on how you can also access the scheme, you can do so on 07939 122303 or email him at [email protected]