Broadband for Robin Hood’s Bay

Introduction

• Residents formed a not-for-profit social enterprise co-operative
• Remote villages and farms now have 8Mbps connections
• Hundreds of users can be serviced over a 3-mile radius
• The co-operative makes a sizeable profit

Summary

Yorkshire Forward has helped to connect rural coastal North Yorkshire with the rest of the world via high-speed broadband.

Although a large number of homes and businesses in Robin Hood’s Bay have access to regular broadband, many outlying farms and houses still have severely limited or no access. With funding from Yorkshire Forward, the Bay Broadband Co-operative was set up as a not-for-profit social enterprise co-operative to bring high-speed digital access to most of Robin Hood's Bay, Fylingthorpe and the surrounding farms.

A modem and a mesh box have been installed at the house of one of the co-operative’s members, connected to an aerial fixed to the roof. The broadband signal is purchased from one of a number of suppliers (coming into the house via an ADSL BT line) and broadcast over a 3 mile radius, reinforced through 6 strategically placed mesh boxes.

The co-operative now provides a reliable, high-quality ADSL facility to 100 regular users plus visitors to the area (who pay a small fee to the co-operative for a temporary connection), using a wifi mesh of up to 8Mb per second. Members pay £5 a month for the service, which means that the cooperative is currently making a sizeable profit. The whole system can be set up for under £2,000 and can service hundreds of users within a 3-mile radius.

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