David, Rainworth, Nottinghamshire

David and his wife moved to Nottinghamshire back in 2013 from a little hamlet called Rattlesden in the heart of Suffolk. There he was able to access download speeds of up to 5Mbps and, whilst slow, it enabled David and his wife to send emails and visit the more basic of websites.

When they moved to Rainworth in Nottinghamshire they didn’t expect that the broadband speeds would be even slower – but they were.

However they didn’t have to wait long for a major improvement. Thanks to the pace of the broadband roll out in Nottinghamshire, David and his wife can now do much much more and really take advantage of what the internet has on offer.

David explained: “One day a leaflet came through our door which highlighted the work of The Better Broadband for Nottinghamshire programme, so without delay I visited the Council’s website to find out more. I was absolutely delighted that our postcode was included in the roll out and furthermore to find out that we could upgrade to fibre optic was excellent news.

“When we first moved to Rainworth we didn’t expect such dreadful internet speeds and even more frustrating was that the signal simply kept dropping out. Following a visit to the council’s website I contacted my Internet Service Provider to request an upgrade to fibre, which went through seamlessly.”

David goes onto say: “I was expecting to pay much more for this new and improved service, however when they told me I’d only have to pay a further 27p I jumped at the chance!

“Having fibre broadband has enabled my wife and I to do so much more, from effortless online banking to being able to use ‘on demand’ services when we fancy watching a film - for example downloading films from Sky’s on demand service, Amazon Prime and Netflix. Gone are the days of having to wait over 4 hours for something to download.

Having good internet access has also helped David pursue one of his passions – exploring the great outdoors. He added: “I’m a keen walker and since upgrading to fibre I have been able to download large files such as ordnance survey maps which then sync with my phone. It’s great to know that I’m not going to get lost on one of my walks!

“I enjoy my music too so being able to download songs and have access to over 35 million tracks is fantastic, so much so that I’ve been able to take advantage of a wireless music system, something which I simply wouldn’t have been able to do if we’d not got decent Wi-fi.

“And with three grandchildren descending on me, having faster Wi-fi is essential, to keep them entertained with their online games. Demands on Wi-fi, in particular at Christmas, are no longer an issue.”

Summarising, David added: “Put quite simply, fibre broadband has been the best thing since sliced bread”.