South West based full-fibre broadband provider Truespeed has now connected its 150th community organisation – for free.

St Benedict's Junior School in Glastonbury has become the latest recipient of Truespeed's 'free broadband for life' promise, which is offered to a community venue or school in each area the Bath-based company expands into.

Following its rapid growth and part of a £134 million investment in the South West over recent years, Truespeed has been on a mission to help bridge the digital divide and ensure communities across the region have access to high-quality, reliable, ultrafast broadband.

In just eight years the company has connected 40 schools and 110 community hubs, giving more than 5,700 children direct access to full-fibre broadband.

James Lowther, Chief Executive, Truespeed commented: "At Truespeed, we believe everyone should have access to reliable, ultrafast broadband. When we invest in an area, by putting our infrastructure in the ground, we have the opportunity to offer our service to as many people as possible, so the community can reap the rewards of better connectivity. 

"By offering free broadband for life to schools and community venues, we extend the benefits of ultrafast connectivity to those who may not be able to afford broadband or computing services at home. This then frees up budget lines for recipient schools and organisations, like St Benedict's, to reinvest that dividend elsewhere." 

On receiving their free connection, Piers Ranger, headteacher of St Benedict's Junior School said: "Reliable connectivity is essential to the school as we utilise multiple online apps and learning platforms. Our previous broadband would buffer constantly and it was a struggle to upload documents, so the difference in the speed and reliability of our connection since having Truespeed is remarkable. It's had a hugely positive impact for students and teachers, and we now have a wonderful opportunity to invest in our ICT hardware thanks to the money we're saving by Truespeed providing the service free of charge."

Lily, Year 6 student at St Benedict's Junior School added: "Everything is much quicker now in our ICT lessons when we're learning on the computers. It used to say no internet access a lot of the time, but since having Truespeed whenever I click on my work or go to use the internet it opens straight away."

Truespeed offers broadband packages starting from 150 Mbps and guarantees speeds as fast as 900 Mbps. The average home internet speed in the UK is less than 60 Mbps3. Full-fibre broadband isn't just about the speed, as every home has its own full-fibre to the property connection, the service is more reliable, upload and download speeds are consistent and there's greater capacity to handle the needs of multiple connected devices using the network simultaneously.  

Founded in 2014 to bring ultrafast broadband to rural, semi urban and suburban areas across the South West, Truespeed has now passed over 70,000 properties across the region all of which are ready for connection, a total investment of £134 million. 

Local residents and businesses in Glastonbury, Street, Shepton Mallet, Wells, Portishead, Clevedon, Keynsham, Saltford, Midsomer Norton, Radstock, Peasedown and Nailsea can now benefit from full-fibre broadband.  

The company also designs bespoke connectivity solutions for large businesses and enterprises requiring ultrafast broadband and industrial-grade resilience. Companies like Thatchers, Yeo Valley and Charlie Bigham's have chosen Truespeed's Enterprise broadband for their connectivity and networking needs.