Ceredigion Connected

Background

Ceredigion County Council employed a Digital Development Officer for Ceredigion to inspire, lead and advise individuals, communities and businesses across Ceredigion who have no or limited digital connectivity on a range of options to improve the access to, and
usage of digital technologies.

The officer engaged with the community and organisations in numerous ways including presentations to Town and Community Councils and local stakeholders. The aim of the engagement was to develop a better understanding of local digital needs, in
order to be able to respond to those and develop alternative solutions at a grass roots level. The adoption of digital technology included broadband and other new technologies such as LoRaWAN.

The LoRaWAN is a low-power, wide area networking protocol designed to wirelessly connect battery operated ‘things’ to the internet in regional, national or global networks. It wirelessly connects devices to the internet and manages communication between end-node devices and network gateways. The development within Ceredigion deployed approximately 35 gateways, with environmental
monitoring, town footfall counting and farm security being some examples of its current use. 

Results and Future Plans

The project has had a positive impact on the county as it has seen a significant number of residents and businesses supported to explore options and funding to improve broadband connectivity. As an outcome of this project, approval has been given for Town Wi-Fi access points, which shall enable Town Centre analysis and footfall counting within Aberaeron, Lampeter, Llandysul, Tregaron and New Quay.

As a result of the COVID-19 there is more reliance on digital connectivity as more people work from home and need access to other online services. This project highlighted there is a large proportion of properties within Ceredigion without access to fast, reliable broadband. Therefore as an outcome of both these factors Ceredigion County Council, in collaboration with Welsh Government, introduced a pilot study which trialled out the provision of 4G routers.

Overall the project has generated a greater awareness of the options and funding available to residents and organisations to improve their broadband connections, and the work shall continue into 2022 through facilitating and supporting further access to digital technologies.

• Number of fibre to the property projects proposed – 18+ with 6 already approved
• Increase in % of Superfast availability (>30Mbps) - 84.5% as of August 2021 
• Number of stakeholders engaged – 200+
• Number of communities engaged - 40