A BUSINESS has celebrated 10 years since its initial share launch at The Storey in Lancaster.

B4RN, a professionally designed fibre optic broadband network, has been building a gigabit (1,000Mbps) capable fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network since 2011.

It reaches into very remote parts of rural Lancashire, Cumbria, Yorkshire, the North East, Cheshire, and Norfolk.

B4RN are committed to offering every property in a community an FTTP connection, no matter how hard they are to reach, and with no additional cost passed on to the individual.

Barry Forde, former B4RN CEO, said: "One of the things that’s different about the rural community to urban is there is a sense of time."

He explained that rural landowners are committed to long-term investments where they may not see instant results, but will reap the benefits of an investment decades down the line.

Community volunteers are a key part of building the B4RN network, helping to plan the route, generate interest, secure wayleaves, dig trenches, blow fibre, and connect homes.

Registered as a Community Benefit Society, any surplus must be reinvested back into the B4RN network or local communities.

The company's growth has been enabled through the various government voucher schemes which provide funding for each eligible property connected.