SUPER-FAST fibre broadband is on its way to residents living in two remote, rural areas of Powys.

The communities of Llanafan Fawr and Llanwrthwl will be connected to super-fast fibre broadband in 2021, following a successful partnership built with Liverpool-based Broadway Partners.

Nearly three years ago, a group of residents from Llanafan Fawr, near Builth Wells, started looking for a broadband solution, having endured years of slow, often unreliable access to the internet. With the support of voucher funding from the UK and Welsh governments, the service to be installed will provide a direct fibre connection to homes and businesses. This will deliver broadband speeds of at least 100mbps, with the capacity to increase that to 1Gbps (a 10-fold increase).

“This is truly fantastic news for the two communities,” said David Price, county councillor for Llanafan.

“Those living and working in the Llanafan Fawr and Llanwrthwl communities have endured poor internet access for too long, but this is all about to change.”

Michael Armitage, chief executive officer of Broadway Partners, added: “Having delivered affordable, high-speed broadband services in other parts of the UK, including Monmouthshire and Pembrokeshire, we are delighted to now be working in rural Powys.

“The business and social benefits of faster connectivity have been amplified during the Covid-19 pandemic, as the internet has become a lifeline for so many people and small businesses.

“Having installed a super-fast broadband service to the residents of Llanafan Fawr and Llanwrthwl, we plan to expand our services further across Powys and encourage other communities suffering from poor internet access to get in touch.”

When it launched its commercial service in 2016, deploying the pioneering TV WhiteSpace technology on the Isle of Arran in Scotland, Broadway’s mission was to serve the connectivity needs of rural communities across the UK. The company has since developed network coverage across large swathes of Monmouthshire in Wales, and in Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, Inverness-shire and Stirlingshire in Scotland.