Full fibre connection will revolutionise how staff work at North Wales Wildlife Trust office near Mold

Having ultrafast full fibre broadband has revolutionised the way that North Wales Wildlife Trust works according to its CEO, Frances Cattanach.

The Trust, which manages 36 nature reserves across North Wales covering around 790 hectares, has teamed up with digital network provider, Openreach, to connect its rural Maeshafn office near Mold with access to some of the fastest broadband speeds in Europe.

In addition to running wildlife conservation projects that include re-introducing the beaver to Wales, managing natural habitats and running educational school visits, the Trust also provides environmental impact surveys for developers, and works with landowners to identify land for wildlife improvements.

These surveys involve working on data heavy mapping files that meant staff had to leave the Maeshafn office and download documents at home – where their broadband speeds were quicker and more reliable.

With staff having to be at the office in order to manage its on site tree nursery and 500 plus volunteers the poor connectivity was proving to be a headache for the Trust and its leader.

Frances Cattanach explains: “North Wales Wildlife Trust is no different to any other organisation or business in that everything is moving online or being digitised.

From sharing resources to saving our finances everything is moving to a shared central drive and our poor broadband was causing us real difficulties.”

“During lockdown we were finding that communication and collaboration improved among the team as our home broadband was better than what we had in the office.”

“Working full-time from home isn’t an option as we need to be on site in Maeshafn but the new ultrafast connection that Openreach engineers have installed means we can now go back to the office with confidence.”

“We turned to Openreach for a solution to our connectivity problem and their engineers have been incredible.”

“Having fast, reliable fibre broadband means we can do so much more and quicker.”

“Producing environmental impact surveys and digital maps are vital tools in protecting our natural habitats so being able to pull them together in the office – and not having to down tools and rely on your home broadband – is a huge bonus.”

“As an organisation it also important that our team – who are often dotted across North Wales – are able to communicate effectively in order to be able to collaborate. Having ultrafast broadband enables us to do this and we’re all delighted with the results.”

In order to connect the site Openreach engineers have run 13 km of fibre from the exchange in Connahs Quay to the Maeshafn office connecting nearly 100 properties along the way.

Andy Whale, Chief Engineer for Openreach, said: “In the same way that natural habitats need their own networks that keep them connected us humans are no different.”

“The work we’ve done to connect the North Wales Wildlife Trust illustrates perfectly how fast, reliable broadband is essential for us all and I’m delighted that we’ve not only been able to bring ultrafast fibre broadband to the NWWT office but also to a number of homes and businesses in the surrounding area.”