For Aled Rees time is money, and being a farmer he would argue that he is not blessed with either! What he will say however is that he needs to make best use of what he has got, and that to be competitive he needs to be able to access information at the touch of a button. Thankfully he is now able to do just that following the installation of 3G wireless broadband at Trefere Fawr Farm, Cardigan, thefocus of his family’s commercial enterprise. But it was not always as easy.
“When registering calves on the government’s cattle tracing system via the Government Gateway, it was proving very difficult to get a stable internet connection via our dial-up connection. It would take anything up to 20 minutes to register one calf and data was regularly lost down the wire.
“And as the dial-up connection of necessity involves a telephone line, I had the shock of my life when the first telephone bill arrived. The costs had almost trebled, and it was then that I, like many farmers had to resort to registering our calves by means of paper documentation.”
Trefere Fawr was at the far end of the local telephone exchange line and the costs to secure internet broadband by landline would have been prohibitive. Furthermore BT had no immediate plans to install broadband. Thankfully there was a solution and a cheap one at that as Aled and his family were able to take advantage of a Wales Assembly Government initiative whereby businesses and households can access up to £1,000 support to put in infrastructure to access higher speed broadband service.
Aled approached Telemat Ltd. a local company specialising in IT support and Solutions and in next to no time with the supply and installation of a small aerial and box of tricks he was up and running.
“Telemat took care of the whole process including advice on the technology, accessing the financial support and installing the technology hassle-free and compared to traditional phone-line broadband provision the technology is competitively priced.
Aled and his wife Hedydd run a grain processing contracting business alongside their organic dairy enterprise but with the installation of 3g broadband life on the 600 acre holding has been transformed. Not only can Aled access spare parts, or obtain quotations over the internet, but the children Delor and Owain are far happier now that they can access information which assists them with their school curriculum.
“The advice and support of Telemat Ltd. has been excellent, and what gave me even more confidence was that Clive Davies is himself a farmer’s son who could easily empathise with my predicament. It helped of course that there was a grant, Clive Davies, manager of Telemat Ltd. at Newcastle Emlyn has extensive experience of the problems and frustrations experienced by Aled and his family.
“They were no different to other businesses and households, particularly in rural areas of West Wales, but thankfully businesses that are currently left behind can transform he way they do business by accessing this technology and at little or no cost to themselves” says Clive Davies.
“We have found that business and homes in most areas we have worked in have been able to significantly increase their broadband speeds through 3G mobile broadband – with speeds of between 1Mb and 3 Mb achieved by our clients.
“Parts of rural Wales still lack broadband service through landline due to distance from exchange. Mobile broadband (3G) is one solution that is available and businesses or households can access up to £1,000 support to put in infrastructure to access higher speed broadband service.
“It is unknown how long public support will be available to invest in infrastructure, so now is clearly the time to act.”
If you‘d like to know more about 3G, give us a ring on 01239 712345 or email info@telemat.co.uk
