As part of the Rural Broadband Working Group, mobile phone network operator Three has provided people living in Kaber, a small Cumbrian village, with a year’s free mobile broadband. Access to the internet is provided via a MiFi device or dongle.

The RBWG project sees Three partner up with Race Online 2012, The Countryside Alliance, and a number of politicians to find out which rural areas of the UK could use mobile broadband as an alternative to fixed line broadband.

A Conservative MP for Penrith and Borders said, “This is Ofcom’s last chance in a generation to give rural communities the help they need in getting access to broadband,”

“There are 6 million people in the UK who will be left isolated if Ofcom does not get this auction process right, and that means ensuring there is a minimum coverage commitment in the auction structure to guarantee operators get mobile broadband coverage to outlying areas of the country.

“It must be about Ofcom securing the future of rural communities, securing these communities’ access to mobile broadband coverage, and ensuring that the people living, working and learning in these areas can access all the benefits of broadband that those living in urban areas can.

“If Ofcom fails to do this, more and more rural communities will simply die out and disappear.”