ISP to launch high-speed broadband in rural Wiltshire

A community in rural Wiltshire is to get a high-speed broadband service as the result of investment from internet service provider Vtesse.

Chapel Plaister falls into the 30 per cent of the UK population that are considered unlikely to ever access broadband speeds higher than the two-megabits-per-second (Mbps) services promised by the universal connectivity policy owing to the remoteness of its location.

Vtesse said, however, that it plans to explore regulatory changes that could help small communities such as those in Chapel Plaister have access to next-generation speeds and potentially encourage more people to use applications like VoIP solutions.

Aidan Paul, chief executive of Vtesse, said: "We aim to explore the regulatory changes and government support required to bring equitable and competitive levels of fast broadband service to rural settlements like Chapel Plaister."

Rural communities often have problems receiving fast broadband services as connections tend to deteriorate in quality the further a user is situated from a telephone exchange.

In addition, laying fibre optic cabling in rural areas can be very expensive.