Most of us in the UK have to cope with lousy broadband speeds that aren't quite as fast as advertised. It appears that if you want really fast broadband then you have to do a Whoopi Goldberg and get in the habit by joining an order of monks on a small island of the coast of Wales.

The monks at the abbey on Caldey, the island off the coast of Pembrokeshire, near Tenby, have just had a massive 30Mbps wireless broadband connection installed. The order needed the connection after years of getting by on dial-up and we guess that watching vids on YouTube was a non-starter.

Telecom company TFL Group installed the wireless connection, which is about 250 times faster than dial-up, so the monks could use it to flog a line of monk-related goods including chocolates, perfume and DVDs (which range from The Monks of Caldey Island, Songs from Solitude and On the Night Tide but oddly enough no DVD called "Hot Monk Action"). The friars website where you can purchase said stuff can be found at www.caldey-island.co.uk.

Father Daniel, the Abbot of Caldey Abbey, said: "Broadband access has made a huge difference to our internet usage. Patience is one of the characteristics of monastic life, but even the patience of the Brothers was being tested by our slow, dial-up internet service. We knew we needed a faster connection, but we had almost given up trying to find a workable solution which would give us an internet connection at speeds enjoyed by others on the mainland."