TikTok Connection Leads to Business Boost for Rural Antiques Dealership

Openreach , 16th May 2023

A popular independent antiques dealership in Mydroilyn near Aberaeron in Ceredigion has turned to social media to help improve its customer service thanks to Openreach’s Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband.

Husband and wife Jonathon and Yvonne Holder have been running ‘Welsh Vernacular Antiques’, from their rural Ceredigion village for nearly 25 years.

Split between two sites the online business is run from their home in Mydroilyn while their period showroom, which holds the country's largest collections of Welsh antiques and quality country furniture, can be found 10 miles away in Pontsaeson near Llanon.

Given their rural location the majority of business – until recently – was conducted on their website. With next to no broadband connectivity in the village the work of uploading images of new furniture on to their website was both time consuming and labour intensive. Uploading anything longer than short 5 second videos was out of the question.

But all that changed with the arrival of Openreach’s Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband to the village. Jonathon explains:

“As a rural business that sells high end Welsh furniture our customers can be anywhere in the world.”

“Footfall to our showroom – given our location – isn’t particularly high compared to our competitors in London so we rely heavily on our reputation and online presence.

“Some of our items can go for as high as £20,000 so our customers that aren’t able to visit our showroom need as much information as possible to make an informed decision. So that can mean several high-resolution pictures, video clips and live-streaming – something that was very difficult or impossible to do without ultrafast broadband.”

“Since getting Full Fibre we’ve seen a huge shift in how we do business with the majority now being done using our social media channels rather than visits to the showroom or even our website.

“We’re on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok and upload new content to our 20,000 followers on a daily basis. This new connectivity allows us to communicate with our customers instantaneously – something that’s vital in e-commerce.

“For rural businesses like ours to survive and thrive having fast reliable broadband isn’t a nice to have. It’s crucial.”

Nearly 40% of people and businesses across Ceredigion can upgrade to Ultrafast Full Fibre today. While nearly half of those properties have upgraded thousands are still missing out on taking advantage of faster, more reliable broadband services.

Following a £4 million pound local investment, Openreach engineers have been busy building the network to make ultrafast speeds of up to one gigabit per second (Gbps) available across the county.

People living and working in the city and its surrounding areas , are being encouraged to find out more about faster broadband – as the latest figures show that Openreach’s Full Fibre network – used by the likes of BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen – is now available to more than 14,000 premises while a little less than half have yet to take up the service.

As well as being faster, Full Fibre broadband provides more reliable, resilient and future-proof connectivity, with fewer faults; more predictable, consistent speeds; and enough capacity to use multiple devices at once.

Elsewhere, local Openreach engineers have been hard at work across Wales where more than 660,000 households and businesses can already place an order for the new technology.

Martin Williams, Openreach’s regional director for Wales, said:

“Research shows that this new network will give businesses an edge and provide families and home-workers future-proof connectivity, no matter what life throws at us next.

“Our investment across Ceredigion and the rest of Wales continues at pace, and we’re determined to deliver a great service which helps communities thrive and supports people to work from home easily, keep in touch with their loved ones and build connections and opportunities.

“Gigabit-capable broadband can have a huge impact on people’s lives and it’s great for the economy but upgrades aren’t automatic. People need to place an order with their chosen providers to get connected and we’ll do the rest. Our network offers the widest choice of providers which means people have lots of choice and can get a great deal.”

Packages from a wide range of broadband providers are increasingly competitively priced, meaning people may not end up paying much more per month than their current bill, for a much-improved service.

Once somebody places and order with a service provider, an Openreach engineer will visit on an agreed day. They’ll run a new fibre optical cable from underground or a nearby pole to a small junction box on the outside wall of the premises. A smaller cable goes through the outside wall to an inside unit – which needs to be near a double electric socket – and before they leave, the engineer will test the connection to make sure it’s up and running.

Openreach has announced plans to invest in Full Fibre broadband for the majority of premises across Wales. It’s part of the company’s plans to reach 25 million UK homes and businesses. This short video explains what full fibre technology is and you can find out more about our build programme here.

With a workforce of around 2,300 in Wales, Openreach already employs the nation’s largest team of telecoms engineers and professionals.

Recent research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) highlighted the clear economic benefits of connecting everyone in Wales to full fibre. It estimated this would create a £2 billion boost to the Welsh economy.

Mae siop hen bethau annibynnol poblogaidd ym Mydroilyn ger Aberaeron, Ceredigion wedi troi at gyfryngau cymdeithasol i’w helpu i wella gwasanaeth cwsmeriaid ar ôl cael band eang ffeibr cyflawn tra-chyflym Openreach.

Mae’r gŵr a gwraig Jonathon ac Yvonne Holder wedi rhedeg ‘Welsh Vernacular Antiques’ yn y pentref gwledig am bron 25 blynedd.

Maent yn cynnal y busnes arlein o’u cartref ym Mydroilyn tra bod y siop - sy’n cynnwys y casgliad mwyaf yn y wlad o hen bethau Cymreig a dodrefn gwlad o safon - ym mhentref Llanon.

Oherwydd eu lleoliad gwledig, tan yn ddiweddar trafodwyd y rhan helaeth o’u busnes ar eu gwefan. Roedd cysylltiad band eang araf y pentref yn golygu bod llwytho delweddau dodrefn ar y wefan yn cymryd amser sylweddol ac roedd llwytho fideos hirach na 5 eiliad yn amhosibl.

Ond newidiodd y sefyllfa pan ddaeth band eang ffeibr cyflawn tra-chyflym Openreach i’r pentref. Esboniodd Jonathon:

“Fel busnes gwledig sy’n gwerthu dodrefn Cymreig o safon byddwn yn denu cwsmeriaid o bob rhan o’r byd.”

“Oherwydd y lleoliad, ni fydd llawer iawn o bobl yn ymweld â’r siop o gymharu â chystadleuwyr yn Llundain, felly byddwn yn dibynnu’n helaeth ar gynnal enw da’r busnes a’n presenoldeb arlein.

“Mae rhai eitemau’n gallu costio hyd at £20,000, felly bydd ein cwsmeriaid angen cymaint o wybodaeth â phosibl er mwyn gwneud y penderfyniad iawn. Bydd hynny’n golygu darparu lluniau safon uchel, clipiau fideo a ffrydio byw - oedd yn anodd os nad ym amhosibl heb fand eang fffeibr cyflawn.”

“Ers derbyn y gwasanaeth newydd, rydym wedi gweld newid cyflym i’n trafodion busnes, gyda’r rhan helaeth dros ein sianeli cyfryngau cymdeithasol, yn hytrach nag yn y siop neu ar y wefan.

“Ar Instagram, Twitter, Facebook a TikTok byddwn yn llwytho cynnwys newydd bob dydd ar gyfer ein 20,000 dilynydd. Mae’r cysylltedd newydd yn ein galluogi i gysylltu’n syth â’n cwsmeriaid - sy’n hanfodol ym maes e-fasnach.

“Rhaid cael band eang cyflym a dibynadwy er mwyn cynnal busnes llwyddiannus mewn ardal wledig.”

Erbyn hyn mae bron 40% o bobl a busnesau ar draws sir Geredigion yn gallu uwchraddio i gael band eang ffeibr cyflawn tra-chyflym. Er bod bron hanner y cartrefi a busnesau wedi uwchraddio, mae miloedd yn dal heb fachu ar gyfleoedd ein gwasanaethau band eang cyflym a dibyandwy.

Yn dilyn buddsoddiad gwerth £4 miliwn yn lleol, mae peirianwyr Openreach wedi bod yn brysur yn lledu’r rhwydwaith i ddarparu gwasanaethau tra-chyflym hyd at 1 gigabeit yr eiliad (Gbps) ar draws y sir.

Mae’r cwmni yn annog pobl yn byw mewn dinasoedd ac ardaloedd cyfagos i ddysgu mwy am fand eang cyflymach - oherwydd mae’r ffigurau diweddaraf yn dangos bod rhwydwaith ffeibr cyflawn Openreach - a ddefnyddir gan gwmnïau fel BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone a Zen - yn awr ar gael i dros 14,000 adeilad ond nid yw llai na hanner ohonynt wedi archebu’r gwasanaeth.

Yn ogystal â darparu gwasanaeth cyflymach, mae band eang ffeibr cyflym yn fwy dibynadwy a chadarn, gyda llai o namau, yn cynnig cyflymder cyson a chynhwysedd digonol er defnyddio sawl dyfais ar yr un pryd.

Ar draws y wlad, mae peirianwyr Openreach wedi bod yn gweithio’n galed er galluogi dros 660,000 cartref a busnes i osod archeb am y dechnoleg newydd.

Dywedodd Martin Williams, cyfarwyddwr rhanbarthol Cymru Openreach:

“Yn ôl ymchwil, bydd y rhwydwaith newydd yn rhoi mantais gystadleuol i fusnesau ac yn darparu gwasanaethau hir oes ar gyfer teuluoedd a gweithwyr cartref, dim ots beth byddant y wynebu yn y dyfodol.

“Rydym yn parhau i fuddsoddi ar draws Ceredigion a gweddill y wlad er mwyn cyflenwi gwasanaeth gwych fydd yn helpu cymunedau i ffynnu, cefnogi gweithwyr cartref a chadw mewn cysylltiad ag anwyliaid.

“Bydd band eang 1 gigabeit yn cael effaith enfawr ar fywydau pobl ac yn dda i’r economi, ond ni fydd gwasanaeth pobl yn uwchraddio yn otomatig. Bydd angen i bobl osod archeb gyda’r cwmni gwasanaeth o’u dewis ac yna byddwn ni’n gwneud y gweddill. Mae ein rhwydwaith yn cynnig amrywiaeth eang o gwmnïau gwasanaeth sy’n darparu llawer o ddewis ar gyfer cwsmeriaid a chyfle i gael bargen.”

Mae pecynnau cwmnïau band eang ar gael am brisiau cystadleuol, sy’n golygu na fydd o anghenraid angen talu mwy bob mis am wasanaeth llawer gwell.

Ar ôl gosod archeb gyda chwmni gwasanaeth, bydd peiriannydd Openreach yn ymweld ar ddiwrnod o’ch dewis. Bydd yn rhedeg cebl o dan y ddaear neu o bolyn cyfagos i flwch cyswllt bach ar wal allanol y cartref. Yna bydd yn gosod cebl llai i gysylltu ag uned fewnol - ger soced trydan - a chyn gadael, yn profi’r cysylltiad er mwyn sicrhau bod popeth yn iawn.

Mae Openreach wedi cyhoeddi cynlluniau i fuddsoddi i ddarparu band eang ffeibr cyflawn ar gyfer y rhan helaeth o gartrefi a busnesau yn y wlad. Rhan o gynlluniau’r cwmni i gyrraedd 25 miliwn cartref a busnes yn y Deyrnas Unedig. Dyma fideo byr yn esbonio beth yw technoleg ffeibr ac mae manylion pellach am ein rhaglen adeiladu yma.

Gyda gweithlu o ddeutu 2,300 yng Nghymru, mae Openreach eisoes yn cyflogi’r tîm mwyaf o beirianwyr a gweithwyr cysylltiedig yn y wlad.

Mae adroddiad diweddar gan Cebr (Centre for Economics & Business Research) wedi tanlinellu’r buddion economaidd o gysylltu pawb yng Nghymru â rhwydwaith ffeibr cyflawn. Amcangyfrifir byddai’n creu hwb gwerth £2 biliwn i economi’r wlad.