Broadband set Eden village of Kaber free (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Broadband set Eden village of Kaber free

5:00pm Thursday 29th December 2011 in Eden news By Kate Proctor, Reporter

by KATE PROCTOR DOWNLOADING photographs, watching TV programmes on iPlayer, using Facebook – most people can do these things with ease.

But for the Eden village of Kaber, using the internet was a daily struggle – until a new collaboration between Penrith and the Border MP Rory Stewart and mobile phone network company Three was unveiled.

It has brought high-speed mobile broadband to the village for the first time, and what’s more it will be free for a year.

Kaber resident and East Cumbria broadband forum member Mike Bridway said: “You can’t put a price on how important rural broadband is for us. More and more functions are happening online and if you don’t have it you are in danger of being left behind.”

Mr Bridway said most people in the village still used dial up internet connection which could only give a speed of less than half a megabit per second – the new coverage would bring speeds of up to 7.2megabits.

Three have also provided a year’s worth of free WiFi connection at the village hall so people can use the building to do internet chores.

Kaber is only the second location in the UK to be targeted by the working group, a campaign championed by Three, the Countryside Alliance and Race Online 2012.

Elsewhere in Eden, work started on a one-mile dig to lay a has broadband internet cable from the UK main network to the village of Warcop.