Will Clark and his partner Nadia live with their two children aged 10 and 12 in the beautiful rural village of Laughton in East Sussex.

The use of technology is integral to the lives of all the family members.  Both Will and Nadia have the flexibility from their employers to work from home; the children use it for their schoolwork including accessing the schools virtual learning hub; and they all use the internet to look at You tube, Netflix, to stream films and keep in contact with friends and family via e-mail and skype whilst using multiple devices to achieve this.

Connectivity is of critical importance to the family to enable them to work and play individually and together.

As they have not yet been able to upgrade to fibre through the eSussex infrastructure development project, due to the distance from their home to the cabinet, Will investigated the Government’s subsidised basic broadband scheme as an option to enhance the poor connectivity of download speeds at less than 2mbps they already had.

Will applied through the scheme ( http://www.esussex.org/national-better-broadband-scheme/) and received a subsidy voucher to be used to purchase an alternative service.  The approved providers on the scheme cover both satellite and wireless technologies, and the family chose a provider offering a 4G solution since it was suggested this would be a faster and more reliable option than satellite broadband at their new address.

Once the decision was made, their chosen supplier organised their connection quickly and efficiently.  A local engineer was booked in and within a fortnight a discreet 4G antenna had been mounted to the side of the cottage and the service was up and running.

Some adjustments have had to be made, in particular keeping an eye on the family’s  monthly data allowance to ensure additional monthly costs aren’t incurred; this is dependent on what people use their broadband service for and how many people are regularly using it.  Will decided to retain his ADSL service as an extra back-up, whilst also using the 4G service.

The family is now able to regularly achieve download speeds far in access of those achieved through the ADSL service,allowing them use the various devices in the household at the same time if they choose, and to get on with modern daily work and life in the way they want to. 

Will commented that:

‘The quality of the service we receive is good.

Although naturally our preference would be for a fibre-based service, having the 4G option has meant that, until this is available, we are able to enjoy living in a rural location without the disadvantage of missing out on an effective broadband service.  Plus with the government BDUK code scheme we haven’t had to pay for expensive temporary equipment. We would certainly recommend the scheme to anyone struggling with an ADSL service’.