Access to high-speed internet seems ridiculously easy in urban areas today, but in many rural areas it is still an elusive luxury. So was the case in Arkholme which is a small village in the UK. The farmers in the village decided to take things into their own hands and laid down a 1Gbps fiber network, starting from scratch.
The example is a huge inspiration for remote communities in other parts of the world. In laying down the fiber network, this group of farmers first had to spin their own fiber, create channels across the fields so that they can lay down the cable and then finally power up the high-speed connection.
They did amazingly well, thanks to the diverse set of skills that was offered by different members of the community. For instance, a farmer’s wife who recently retired from an IT support career lent her help for the project; a professor at the Lancaster University who happens to be an expert in computer network came on board with his set of skills.
Normally, laying such a network is highly costly because the landowners must be paid if a company wishes to pass the line through their fields. However, in this case, landowners voluntarily decided to allow free access to their fields for the sake of the project.
The project is near its completion and the team behind it claims that the connection is providing speeds well above 900 Mbps. However, the farmers have run out of capital, and are now looking to outside investment to help them complete this awesome project.
Source: BBC
Courtesy: Gizmodo
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