B4RN Continues Network Growth In Rural North

B4RN (Broadband 4 the Rural North) is continuing to extend its network in the North, focusing on more “hard-to-reach” locations and announcing further plans to expand across Northumberland and County Durham.

The “Community Benefit Society” business has already connected 13,000 customers and passed over 25,000 properties. Although, compared to other “altnets,” the number of properties passed seems small, let’s not forget this company’s goal:

“To deliver the best internet service in the country to the areas that are hardest to reach, working shoulder to shoulder with, and for, rural communities, to realise the enduring benefits of greater resilience and connectivity.”

When you look at those two numbers—25,000 passed, 13,000 connected—it actually puts their network at a penetration rate of over 50%! Which, of course, is very much unheard of.

Now, of course, B4RN has a different outlook than many “altnets.” They’re a Community Benefit Society, meaning they’re a not-for-profit business. They’re very much community-led, and that bodes incredibly well with the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.

In another world, the UK might have had a far faster take-up and less overbuild if we had hundreds of community-led organizations leading the charge in connecting Britain to a full-fibre nation, but hey, that was never going to happen.

Safe to say, we like what B4RN is doing.

From the latest announcement, we can see them expanding into Northumberland and County Durham in what they call “Phase Three.” Phase Two, which is currently in progress, aims to cover 1,300 properties in the areas of Barrasford, Kirkwhelpington, and Woodburn.

The “Phase Three” expansion will see them deploy their network to over 4,200 properties in the following locations, utilising the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.

Northumberland