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A partnership between EE (BT), the Denbighshire County Council, the Clocaenog Community Council and the Welsh Government has enabled the operator to extend their mobile (mobile broadband) network signal to reach across the remote rural North Wales village of Clocaenog. The community is said to have “been without reliable mobile phone coverage for decades“.
The technical details of precisely what mobile technologies have been deployed to cover Clocaenog’s small population (around 254 people live across the area) are currently unclear, although BT is understood to have installed their kit on top of an existing lamppost in the centre of the village. The latter sounds very much like a Small Cell style solution.
Otherwise, it is true to say that outdoor 4G mobile signals in the area have been, until now, extremely patchy to unusable. The project is said to have been supported by additional funding from the Brenig Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund, which distributes up to £152,000 per annum to help various projects in the nearby area (it’s unclear how much funding went toward this deployment).
Susi Marston, Head of Public Sector Wales at BT Business, said:
“Bringing mobile connectivity to Clocaenog gives residents and local businesses opportunities they have never been able to access before. This partnership has been entirely focussed on working together to provide the community here with better connections to services, stronger links between people and more confidence to grow and plan for the future. Using ‘mini masts’ means we are able to deliver the network services people need in a way which respects the unique character of the area.”
Adam Price, Cabinet Minister for Enterprise, Connectivity and Energy, said:
“Digital not-spots that cut communities off from modern life and economic opportunity have no place in our vision for Wales. As the new Welsh Government, we are committed to driving investment, innovation and higher productivity across Wales, and innovative projects like this will play an important part in delivering the stronger connectivity needed for the future Wales we want to foster.”
One catch with a deployment like this is that the mobile coverage will be very limited, so we suspect there may still be areas with patchy signal.