Broadband provider Keycom powers up Welsh industrial estate

STAFFORDSHIRE broadband provider Keycom is installing new communications services to a large industrial estate in Wales.

The Wrexham Industrial Estate comprises more than 300 businesses, together supporting around 7,000 jobs.

However, Keycom said prior to it starting work, businesses on the estate have labelled the broadband service as “hopeless” and “desperate”.

The installation of the new superfast broadband services has seen businesses now reporting increases in broadband speed from a meagre two megabits a second to up to 100.

Regulator Ofcom has said the average UK broadband speed is 18.7 Mbps – with rural areas achieving an average of 13.6 Mbps.

Graham Sharp, managing director of garden products firm Treadstone Products, one of tenants on the estate, said: “The situation was desperate with no fibre and slow speeds. The only option we had prior to Keycom’s involvement was expensive lease lines.”

Stafford-based Keycom has installed a wi-fi transmitter at a central location on the industrial estate enabling businesses to get connected with superfast internet through a wireless network and infrastructure.

Claire Hughes, of Keycom said: “Businesses on the Wrexham Industrial Estate were lucky to achieve 2Mbps. We have installed a wireless system which is available to any business within line of site of the transmitter.”

Keycom classifies itself as a market leader in bespoke broadband installations to business and specific sectors include housing associations, higher education and Armed Forces accommodation.

The company has recently installed a 1Gbps service – Britain’s fastest broadband – for a luxury housing development in Chelsea.