“The Full Fibre connection that the hall now has through the GigaHubs project has proved a great enhancement over the previous broadband service, both in reliability and speed. Users of the hall have found the service very useful and having it has brought an end to the complaints about internet speed that we used to contend with. The service has made the hall more attractive, which is of course great news for the hall’s management committee.”

“There is a bit of a buzz around the village since Full Fibre broadband was delivered by the Oxfordshire Digital Infrastructure Team. This service is new to Hethe Village Hall, it allows classes and events run by the hall a new dimension to what they offer; for example, the gardening club can live stream meetings from guest presenters to both attendees in the hall and those who may not be able to attend in person. Yoga classes can YouTube yoga channels and the Parish Council can share the online planning applications for discussion, the list goes on. Many thanks it is a gamechanger.”

“As we look to diversify the opportunities for the local community to use the hall as well as attract the all-important commercial bookings that allow us to maintain the hall, excellent wi-fi is a vital offering. Not only does this service add value to those booking the hall, in an area with a notoriously bad phone signal, we know villagers regularly connect to the wi-fi from the gardens in order to make calls and use the internet, even when the hall isn’t open!”

“In an increasingly digital world, being connected is vital. We are now able to offer more services to our community – streaming of events, ability to access and download music to our events for booked parties has been of great benefit and something we couldn’t offer before. Making the connection accessible to people using the hall has enabled them to stay connected and use the hall in not only a different way than before, but much more regularly as well. We would like to create a hub for people that regularly work from home, so they don’t have to feel so isolated.
We have also installed a smart thermostat, which means we can control our heating remotely which will be much appreciated by those that attend on early wintry mornings. Now taking this a step further and we are investigating integrating our heating system with the bookings calendar and making the hall warm and welcoming automatically when we have a booking!”

“We’re always looking for ways to improve our services and facilities for local groups and individuals who hire rooms in our premises. Being able to provide good Wi-Fi connection has become an increasingly important aspect of our bookings, so we are delighted with the new full fibre broadband that’s been recently installed.” – Karen Woolley, Woodcote Community Centre.

“The upgrade to our broadband service at Faringdon Library is having a noticeably positive benefit on service delivery. We are seeing much faster speeds on public computers, staff PCs, self-service kiosks, and public Wi-Fi connections. The improved Wi-Fi now supports flexible working, meetings and hotdesking for visiting staff.” – Mark McCree, Service Manager of the council’s library service.