Britain's broadband revolution reaches Yorkshire Dales

NEWS The small village of Catterick in the Yorkshire Dales is the latest rural community to get hooked up to broadband. Catterick is best known as a Garrison town - in fact it boasts the largest military settlement in Europe - but from this month its proud residents will have another claim to fame. They will be able to log on to high-speed internet access thanks to a fundraising campaign led by community champions, local businesspeople and digitaldales.co.uk - a group dedicated to bringing Yorkshire in to line with high-tech Britain. While the village is too small to even merit its own train station, the project, realised in a mere three months, is leading the way in bringing broadband to rural areas. And it was all done without BT, too. The village network is based on Wi-Fi and the latest satellite services, allowing Catterick's homes and businesses to enjoy all the advantages of broadband without using the telephone system to deliver it. With only minimal investment needed to set up and run the local broadband network, the Catterick villagers are hoping that their scheme and others like it will be at the forefront of using technology to regenerate remote communities, encouraging more new businesses and offering a much-needed shot in the arm to local employment. A Digital Dales spokeswoman said: "This should give hope to all rural communities that broadband is available to everyone, now."