Faster News
Commercial pilot and farmer Andy Jones in Collington is just one of 164 residents and businesses in and around Tedstone Wafre, Herefordshire now able to enjoy the benefits of superfast fibre broadband after years of low broadband speeds.
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Business Stories
Way2Go Adventures is a family owned outdoor activity provider in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley, run by mother and son team, Dianne Worrall and Wayne Morgan. Dianne has accessed a range of business support and training offered by Fastershire, FasterBusiness programme.
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Events
In this FREE training session, Faster Business advisors, Mandy Sims and Catherine Banks, will help you understand the benefit of email marketing and how to incorporate it into your marketing strategy.
Read More Commercial pilot and farmer Andy Jones in Collington is just one of 164 residents and businesses in and around Tedstone Wafre, Herefordshire now able to enjoy the benefits of superfast fibre broadband after years of low broadband speeds.
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Fastershire presented a 'Rural Gigabit Future' workshop for the Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA) in April.
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Guests at Lucksall Caravan and Camping Park in Herefordshire can now benefit from a new superfast broadband connection and park wide WiFi access thanks to a grant from Fastershire.
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Age UK in Ross-on-Wye have teamed up with Herefordshire Council’s Fastershire project to help to get more people online in south Herefordshire.
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Herefordshire has been selected by the Government’s Digital Catapult initiative to devise and pilot a brand new technical solution to improve the lives of elderly people in the county.
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Four community cabinets areas went gone live last week, in Gloucestershire, the Aston Magna community cabinet (lot 3d) and Brookthorpe cabinet (3e)are live and providing ultrafast services and in lot 4 Herefordshire, the Acton Green cabinet and Pencombe cabinet are also live.
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Anita’s work includes the online promotion of a range of nutritional wellbeing sprays www.TeamEffortNetwork.co.uk developed by Team Effort Network in the US, an image consultancy www.FirstImpressions-uk.biz and video communications at www.MyVideoTalkSuccess.com
Multitasking online
From webconferences to online consultancy and training, uploading files to using multiple programmes at once, Anita now has access to a whole new level of productivity thanks to a faster broadband connection.
“I’m part of a global network using videoconferencing, webinars, blogs, pre-recorded video, social media and other channels to market and train on a variety of products and services. Good broadband speed is important, and since getting fibre I can upload and view videos better, have many programmes open at the same time and the overall quality of my videos, recordings and appearance online is higher and more reliable.
“It’s the increased upload speed that’s most effective. I used to have to be careful about when I chose to upload, avoiding peak times and weekends, but with fibre I don’t need to think about what time it is.”
Connecting better with people, presenting a better appearance
Health reasons mean extensive travel isn’t an option, but with superfast broadband Anita has found it’s possible to project her business to a greater extent online, especially with video.
“Video gets results. I can provide live or recorded communications, with video through email, website channels, TV style broadcast shows and training sessions. Before, if I was asked to be a speaker online, I would have to give a caveat about my unreliable connection, which was very embarrassing and not a great first impression. I haven’t had to give that warning again!
“Image consultancy is all about presenting a good appearance but if I don’t look good and provide good quality when online it doesn’t say much about the product. Since upgrading I can do more from home at a higher quality in less time, reaching a higher geographic audience with a better product.”
The Faster Business Review is a free session between you and one of the Faster Business Advisors. The review is completely tailored to your business and can cover any topic, including, social media, online marketing, websites, e-commerce, data/online security, software and hardware or you can seek expert advice on any particular area you feel would most benefit your business.
Whether your business is a start-up and a small or medium sized business looking to grow, the Faster Business Review can help.
To request a business review please complete the registration form at the bottom of the page and one of our business advisors will contact you to arrange your free face to face review.
Meet with a Faster Business Advisor
Faster Business Action Plan
Faster Business Voucher & Exclusive Offers
With your action plan you will receive £100 worth of Fastershire Vouchers to help you deliver one of the actions. To claim your Faster Business voucher, please click here. These vouchers can be redeemed to pay for software subscriptions, online marketing or even a professional's time. As a Faster Business you will also have access to a range of exclusive offers from local businesses.
Cost: Free
Location: Your premises (or as arranged)
Discussion topics: Troubleshooting, social media, connectivity, software, hardware but you can drill down into any particular area you feel would most benefit your business.
Duration: The discussion can last anything between a couple of hours and half a day.
Location: Hereford Business Solutions Centre, Coldnose Road, Rotherwas, Hereford, HR2 7JS
Date: Friday 20th January 2017
Time: 12:00-14:00
Creating engaging and relevant content is the essential part of any successful online marketing strategy.
Hereford Business Solutions Centre, Coldnose Road, Rotherwas, Hereford, HR2 7JS
Fastershire in partnership with Connecting Shropshire and Superfast Telford and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), have designed the Marches and Gloucestershire Broadband Grant.
Here's a list of business broadband providers who offer packages for businesses connected by Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) or Fibre to the Premises (FTTP), with links to their web sites, so you can find out if they're up and running where you live.
Click here to view FTTP providers >
Fibre to the premises (FTTP) is one of the world's most cutting edge types of fibre broadband with blistering speeds of up to 330Mbps and 1000Mpbs.
If you get enabled with FTTP, you can order it through one of the following Service Providers.
We'll update this page as more ISPs start to offer FTTP.
Here's a list of business broadband providers who offer packages for businesses connected by Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) or Fibre to the Premises (FTTP), with links to their web sites, so you can find out if they're up and running where you live.
Click here to view FTTP providers >
Below is a list of videos from our YouTube channel.
Thanks to funding from the Government Equalities Office we have now run two Faster Women projects to support Herefordshire and Gloucestershire women to develop the digital and internet skills required to setup and develop their businesses. The second project ended in April 2016. We are now offering occasional workshops throughout the year.
Please register your interest through the link below if you would like to be notified when Faster Women workshop dates are confirmed.
If you are part of a local business network organisation that would be interested in providing workshops and training to your members and others please email faster-women@fastershire.com
Faster broadband provides an opportunity for businesses and potential entrepreneurs to take advantage of faster speeds to expand current or set-up new businesses, including home-based businesses, however the Women’s Business Council has found that for women in particular increasing digital confidence and internet know-how is key to this. Thanks to funding from the Government Equalities Office, Fastershire provided Faster Women networking opportunities, workshops and training for women to take advantage of how the internet can boost new and existing businesses.
Upcoming Workshops
Click here for our Fastershire events page, which includes details of any Faster Women workshops...
Faster Women Stories
"I've learnt new ways of doing things and how to use my time much more effectively so I can focus more on working with my clients than running the day-to-day elements of my business."
Are you a successful business woman working in Herefordshire or Gloucestershire who would like to share how you’ve used the internet to effectively develop a business? Do you make the most of the benefits that using the internet can bring whether it’s marketing through social media, online selling, maintaining a website, cloud computing, running a business from home?
If you’d like to help shape future projects by sharing your own knowledge and experience of successfully using digital technology please get in touch.
The Fastershire broadband project and the Herefordshire Rural Hub have come together to create our Faster Farmers project, offering free support to agricultural and land-based businesses in the two counties.
Faster Farmers offers free training and advice to help farmers exploit new digital technology and methods of working to expand and grow their business. Please visit the events section for details of Faster Farmers workshops, and workshops available to all businesses.
Farming businesses can also request a free Faster Business review - for tailored one-to-one advice on your business's use of IT and the internet, covering topics such as social media, online marketing, websites, hardware, software and more. Please fill in the form here to request a review visit.
For any other information about Faster Farmers, please contact us.
The Fastershire broadband project and the Hereford Business Improvement District (HBID) have teamed up to create the Faster City project.
The Faster City project has developed a WiFi city centre scheme in Hereford that delivers three elements:
Hereford boasts the largest retail offer in the county with many of Herefordshire’s key retail and tourism businesses located in a highly concentrated area.
The Faster City project will enhance the shopping experience for consumers and help city centre retailers to understand and exploit the changing market trends
The scheme will also pave the way for other innovations including smart infrastructure including an upgraded CCTV circuit and interactive signage.
Faster City launches free WiFi network in Hereford City Centre.
To read the full story, please click here.
96,516 Faster homes & 
99
exchange areas 
7,000 km of 
621
cabinets Faster broadband is being rolled out across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire between now but it is not possible to flick a switch to make every area go live on the same day and some areas will go live before this. Register your interest today and we will keep you in the loop about developments in your fibre broadband status.
Faster Women
Faster Farms
Faster City
