SOUTH Shropshire has sent a clear message to a go-getting company that says it can ease the region’s broadband woes - we want what you’ve got.

Hereford-based Allpay is to step up its plan to beam superfast broadband from the Clee Hills on the back of a big response to its system that uniquely uses church towers as transmitters.

In January, the Ludlow Advertiser revealed Allpay had its eye on the Clee Hills as the base point for its system, pitched as being able to go where the “big boys”

can’t or won’t.

Allpay broadband manager Lisa Howell said the response since the story had been so encouraging that the company would be stepping up ef forts to assess churches where PCCs showed an interest.

“And we’ve had a lot of interest from South Shropshire,” she said.

Since the official launch of the system in January – a link-up with the Diocese of Hereford – some 60 PCCs on the Herefordshire side of diocese want to be part of it with many more actively interested.

At the time of the launch, Allpay was talking about expanding the 4Mb system into South Shropshire over the next six to 12 months.

Backed by the diocese, Allpay has been successfully trialling its service in selected parishes for the past year using church towers as line of sight relay stations for receivers the size of cereal boxes.

The system uses churches along the A49 as its spine and would need a transmitter or access point on the Clee Hills to ensure a strong signal across South Shropshire.

Air traffic control domes and radar towers already dot the summits of both Brown Clee (1,772ft) and Titterstone Clee (1,749ft) so any new wireless access point is not seen as too much of an intrusion - if at all.

A model agreement is now in place establishing the principle of using towers as transmitters. With that done it is down to individual parochial church councils to decide on involvement and apply for the relevant permissions, processes Allpay will assist with.

􀁧 Parishes interested in joining the network can contact Lisa Howell on lisa.howell@allpay.net or visit the Allpay website.