14th January 2025

Full-fibre broadband provider, toob, has donated its 900 Mbps service to support a local Scout group in Eastleigh

Full-fibre broadband provider, toob, has donated its 900 Mbps service to support a local Scout group in Eastleigh. The 1st Eastleigh Scouts, located on Chamberlayne Road, is a well-established community hub, providing a space for many local activities. Groups supporting people with disabilities, a yoga group, and a play group for small children are among the facility users.

Funded through charitable donations, the historic 1st Eastleigh Scout group has been active since 1908, and is currently looking for volunteers to help keep their group running. In addition to this search, the building had also been struggling to offer its users the digital connections they needed, as the outdated internet service wasn’t able to supply service throughout the whole space. The poor connection was causing disruptions for the centre users, making some activities impossible to run and making things like online training difficult and time consuming.

Knowing the complications that the existing slow and unreliable broadband connection was causing for the centre users, Adrian Burt, Treasurer, 1st Eastleigh Scouts, was keen to upgrade its broadband. Adrian called local full-fibre broadband provider, toob, which is headquartered in Portsmouth and serves over 70,000 customers.

On hearing the connection issues at the centre and how central it is to the community, toob organised installation straight away, donating a full-fibre 900 Mbps service to help keep the community digitally connected and support the valuable work at the facility.

Nick Parbutt, CEO, toob, said, “I have always supported the scouting movement. When I was younger, I was a cub and a scout, and my father was a cub leader. I was, therefore, delighted that we could help Adrian and the 1st Eastleigh Scouts to improve their connectivity so that they can provide a better service to the Chamberlayne Road area of Eastleigh.

“Scout huts and community centres are vital hubs for local children and the broader community, and I am very pleased that we can play our part in improving the service that Adrian can provide to the community in Eastleigh.”

Adrian Burt, Treasurer, 1st Eastleigh Scouts, said, “We’re delighted that toob has donated a 900 Mbps full-fibre broadband connection to the 1st Eastleigh Scouts; it will support so many of our groups at the centre. The connection is fast and reliable, which is just what we need, with many devices able to connect at the same time we will be able to offer what our centre users need.”

toob has a history of community support and is determined to continue with this work. To date, toob has been involved in supporting charitable organisations through events, sponsorships and fundraising, collecting more than £7,000 for local charity Solent Mind. toob also sponsored firefighters Stuart Vince and Craig Sadler, who raised £16k for The Firefighters Charity and Mind by rowing across the Atlantic.

toob continues to sponsor local community radio station Unity 101 and over the years, toob employees have taken part in the Great South Run and an open water swim in the Solent. CEO Nick Parbutt and CFO Mike Banwell have also taken on extreme challenges by abseiling the iconic Spinnaker Tower and completing a 100km extreme trek in 30 hours, all in the name of charity fundraising.