A Hampshire charity has embraced space-age technology to supercharge productivity by ensuring even its remotest sites are connected.
Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust (HIWWT) is one of the largest of the 46 Wildlife Trusts that comprise the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts across the UK. Together, they are one of the country’s most active and influential nature conservation partnerships, protecting wildlife in every part of the British Isles.
HIWWT asked IT service provider Aura Technology to help it improve internet connections across its patch, which includes several settings in rural locations. For the past five years, the charity, headquartered in Curdridge, near Botley, has worked with Aura on a digital transformation designed to help HIWWT use IT more effectively, and securing better internet connectivity was a logical next step in this process.
Tim Walker, Managing Director at Aura Technology, explained that the solution was to embrace satellite technology. “HIWWT discussed their need for better internet speeds with our Technical Director Pete Hughes, who had experience with Starlink technology and agreed it looked like an ideal solution for them.”
Delivered by the American aerospace company SpaceX, Starlink is the world’s first and largest satellite constellation using Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to provide broadband internet, allowing it to offer a high-speed internet connection almost anywhere in the world.
“With modern internet connections, even at home, you would expect download speeds of more than 10 megabits per second (Mbps) and often up to 50Mbps for streaming and gaming,” said Tim. “For businesses that need videoconferencing with multiple users, for example, a lot more data is involved. HIWWT also relies on a cloud server infrastructure to store files in the cloud, which requires a fast internet speed for downloading and uploading files.
“At many of HIWWT’s remote locations, they’d have download speeds as low as 1 to 5Mbps on their BT copper connection because often they were quite literally ‘at the end of the wire’. For comparison, Starlink provides them with around 100Mbps download speed and sometimes more.”
This transformation has understandably made a considerable difference to HIWWT’s day-to-day communications and productivity.
Tara Puttock, Facility Manager at HIWWT, said: “Working from remote locations comes with various challenges, including poor internet connectivity and deterioration of copper cabling, which can cause weeks of downtime while we wait for the cabling to be replaced. Starlink has removed these frustrations so that all our teams, wherever they are, can work as efficiently as they were in a built-up area.
“We know we can rely on Aura to understand our needs and offer the very best solution, which simultaneously ensures excellent value for money.”
