HOUSING association North Lincolnshire Homes has set its sights on becoming the first UK provider of a new broadband technology and, with it, aims to help more tenants get online.

For the last six months, the housing association has been piloting a broadband service with 100 volunteer tenants in the Westcliff area of Scunthorpe.

The pilot has been a huge success, with 86% of volunteers rating the service good or excellent, and so NLH is now looking to roll it out to even more tenants.

Subject to funding, the service, which will be beamed across Scunthorpe, will be offered to tenants at a special rate – with no additional monthly fees for telephone line rental.

This means tenants don’t have to pay for a landline telephone to get a broadband service.

The NLH service will use the latest LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology which means guaranteed download speeds much higher than currently available for many users.

An official partner of Race Online, it is the ambition of North Lincolnshire Homes to improve opportunities for tenants by providing high quality, reliable online services as cheaply as possible.

Mike Eckersley, Head of IT at North Lincolnshire Homes, said: “With only 36% of our tenants believed to be online, a large proportion of the community is digitally excluded. This means they are not accessing the benefits that others are getting, such as information about jobs, training, education and online savings.

“When changes to welfare benefits are introduced next year people can only apply for Universal Credit online, those who need the most help could become even more digitally excluded.

“We have a responsibility to help our tenants improve their opportunities. It is a known fact that the web can find you savings of £130 a year on household bills and regular access to the internet is the difference of two GCSE grades for our children.
“Cost is a barrier for people, but more so is the poor provision of broadband in North Lincolnshire. We have a solution in which will transmit a new wireless service across Scunthorpe which doesn’t rely on telephone lines.”

Race Online 2012 is a Government-backed scheme which aims to ensure everyone in the UK has access to the transformative power of the internet.

On its website, it states: “Around half of the 8.7m UK adults who have never been online live in social housing.

“Technology is the only way to meet the twin imperatives of social housing: letting landlords deliver more for less while fulfilling core social commitments to tenants: increasing financial literacy, education, employability, reducing social isolation.”

North Lincolnshire Homes fully supports this view and is an active partner of Get IT Together – a North Lincolnshire based scheme, working with North Lincolnshire Council and Study Parks to provide IT skills to people within the community.

Damion Broughton, 25, a North Lincolnshire Homes tenant from Westcliff and participant in the broadband trial, said: “Having the internet in my home has enabled me to search and apply for jobs on a regular basis. I have also been able to save money by shopping online for the cheapest deals. It is also a great way for me to keep in touch with my friends and family.

“I have found the trial brilliant. The service has been excellent and I have found the connection very fast.

“There have been no problems for me at all during the last six months, it has been a really positive experience.”

It will be possible to transmit LTE broadband services within a range of 26km from the base stations in Scunthorpe so it is anticipated most of the tenants living in the town and outlying areas may be able to access the service.