Forgot your password?
Catterick Village, North Yorkshire
Document Actions
Press coverage - Silicon.com
Award - Calor Village of the Year 2003, Internet Technology
Phil Upton (Purple Technology), Lindsey Annison (Digital Dales), William Hague MP, Dave Carman (Aramiska)
Digital Dales met Phil Upton at one of our events, and proceeded to work with him and the local Community Office to set up a wireless community network in the village. Phil was one of the 450 Business Insight users who received a satellite connection from Aramiska and Yorkshire Forward, free for a year.
The Community Office, in the middle of the village, was due to open in July to offer LearnDirect courses to local people and businesses, and for this they needed a fast Internet connection.
Digital Dales visited the village on more than a few occasions to survey the buildings between the satellite location and the Community Office, and also to investigate the possibility of extending the Mesh network to all of the villagers and businesses. We even went down towards the Racecourse and wondered about wi-fi and Bluetooth betting possibilities!
It took several months for the community works team to access a grant for the equipment required, and then Joel Smith and Phil Upton worked together to install antennas and MeshBoxes to create a simple MeshNetwork to connect the Community Office.
William Hague was invited to open the Community Office during the weekend of 4th July, whilst he was present for the inauguration of the Wensleydale Railway.
Since then, Yorkshire Forward have made available £300 grants for businesses to connect to broadband and we hope to see many businesses taking advantage of this opportunity and connecting into the Catterick Village community network. Phil is now involved with a new company, Village Beacon, who hope to replicate the success of the Catterick Village network elsewhere in the Richmondshire area.
