THIRTY village halls will be provided with wireless internet under plans unveiled by a rural district council.

In a ground-breaking move, West Lindsey District Council has appointed Quickline to install wireless broadband into more than thirty village halls in Lincolnshire.

The scheme means villages previously in broadband 'not-spots' or 'slow spots' can enjoy high-speed internet of the same speed and quality as urban areas.

Council leader Burt Keimach said: "We have listened to our communities and they are telling us poor internet connection is a big issue.

He added: "Our priority is to support communities to help themselves and we feel this project is a great enabler to do this.

"Improving access to high speed broadband will help support community activity, encourage people to pay their bills on-line and improve communication through emails and social media.

"We are delighted to announce that Quickline, a Humber region internet service provider will start connecting village halls from April this year."

Quickline managing director Steve Jagger said village halls were a hub of activity for rural communities and it was fantastic that funds had been invested to improve communications.

"We are delighted to have won the tender and we are looking forward to working with the council to raise awareness of the availability of wireless services in the district and surrounding area.

"Rural communities need not wait until 2015. Our service is available right now with access to internet speeds of up to 20Mbs, which is 40x faster than some were previously used to."

The council currently provides broadband to some village halls.

The new contract will increase speeds to those village halls as well as extending the number receiving broadband while being 20% cheaper than current costs.

This project is in addition to Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) Project and focuses on our more rural communities.