Up hill and download dale as villagers cross digital divide

Reeth Rural Radio Net, a not-for-profit service for the isolated farms and communities in the area, is run by a group of local villagers who were determined to bring broadband to the area.

Realising that a commercial company was unlikely to view connecting the area as a priority they set up their community hub, using a system of subscriptions to invest and maintain a system which uses a wireless connection to provide homes with broadband. It has proved a great success and now has more than 100 members

"We are the only service for a lot of people," said John Hall, one of the volunteers. "We can get to these farmers who are increasingly finding they need to do their returns online but are without adequate reception.

"One of our members has no mains electricity but he does have broadband."

Mr Hall, who called for more action on the issue, said their set-up could operate much faster if given access to fibreoptic connectivity.

He added: "Before Cameron's Big Society we were doing all of these things."