Wireless broadband has been deployed to residents in a Welsh 'not-spot' village in the foothills of Snowdonia.

Utilising funding from the Welsh Assembly Government's community broadband support scheme, householders in Rhiwlas enlisted the help of Netserve and Opal IT Services to connect them to the FibreSpeed network.

As a result of the work, more than 70 homes in the area can now connect to wireless broadband that offers speeds of up to 2Mbps, with the potential to upgrade this bandwidth to 4Mbps.

Local broadband champion and Opal chief Phil Roberts played an important role in bringing high-speed internet access to the village for the first time.

Along with the village committee, he was responsible for drumming up support from residents - a factor that was essential if the broadband service was to prove viable.

"I, together with the village committee, spent a lot of time knocking on doors, encouraging people to fill in forms and get involved," Mr Roberts explained.

"Residents love the internet now and some can hardly believe how much better it is."

Netserve has committed to improving the available bandwidth as soon as possible, meaning consumers in Rhiwlas can look forward to receiving up to 10Mbps speeds in the coming months.

Without requiring any additional upgrade work, the equipment fitted by the telecoms firm is theoretically capable of providing up to 30Mbps downloads to every user.

Mr Roberts said he had considered campaigning for BT to bring fibre broadband to the area, but had found Netserve's proposition too good to turn down.

"They have done a great job and as far I'm concerned they can walk on water," he stated.

Construction on FibreSpeed's super-fast broadband network began back in November 2007, with the infrastructure now running for more than 200 miles across north Wales.

The service connects 13 business parks, with two further sites set to be added in the future. 

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