Nigel Short of Voot Telecom on why internet not-spots are finally something that can be forgotten in many rural areas
“THIS PRODUCT COMPLETELY CHANGED THE WAY WE WORK!”
That’s a great endorsement in anyone’s book and exactly the sort of feedback that you want to hear from a customer. When my business, Voot Telecom, got together with Andy Hanselman to try and find a solution to their years-long lack of broadband capacity at Andy’s home in Thorpe Salvin, that was exactly the plan.
“Rural connectivity has been an issue for us as long as we have been in our village,” Andy said. “While broadband speeds were getting faster all the time, we were left in a bit of a time-loop here. We were about a mile and a half outside the village and had just accepted that no-one was going to be digging up a lot of roads for our row of houses. I couldn’t even stream Sheffield United games.”
“I’m a Wednesday fan myself,” Nigel said. “But I’m also up for a challenge, so while leaving the Bramall Lane highlights buffering for all eternity was tempting, I wanted to see how we could help. At the time, no-one knew what was coming at the start of 2020, but home working was never going to be an option for Andy…
“Our office wasn’t just a place to work from, it was the only place we could work from. I work with companies all over the world and online training sessions and webinars were our way of doing that. If we wanted to get online with a connection we could trust with a client, we had to drive into Sheffield to do it.”
Andy was Voot’s first customer using their Fast 4G solution. While traditional mobile broadband options had been available for some time, the data plans were still limited and they suffered from signal interruptions themselves – like the thick walls in Andy’s house providing another fly in the ointment. Fast 4G installs a mobile connection outside the home, a small dish and aerial like a Sky receiver, that is installed in the home just like a fibre connection. It just takes a bit of drilling and a traditional wi-fi box and the service is up in hours.
Before the pandemic, working from home was a luxury, but during it, Andy’s Fast 4G connection let him keep in touch with clients, friends and family.
“It’s actually quite life changing,” Andy said. “Kids don’t look horrified when they visit and find they cant get on Instagram. Our neighbours have had it installed too. After years of being told that we may or may not see improvements one day, Nigel and Voot had us fixed up in an afternoon!”
If you would like to arrange a free test to check your connection speeds at your home or office, give me call on 01143211504 or visit https://www.voot.org
