Published: Friday, 18th December, 2009 10:38am

'Burn to benefit from free WiFi

Comments (1) | Print | Email

WALKERBURN will soon be wireless after it was announced this week that the village has been awarded three years of free wireless internet access.

The Walkerburn Public Trust was one of 46 groups chosen to receive the prize from free public WiFi network Freerunner, beating over 500 other entrants from across the UK.

The new service will be installed in the village hall, and will be available to anyone to use completely free of charge for the next three years.

Although there is currently a computer enabled with broadband in the hall, it is located in the office and so for security reasons isn't be available for public use.

The new WiFi service will mean members of the public will be able to take their laptops into the hall and access high-speed internet whenever they need to.

Patricia Purves, Secretary of the Walkerburn Community Council, said: "This is a fantastic boost for Walkerburn.

"The village has been a mobile phone blackspot for years, and we even lobbied BT to upgrade the lines in the area.

"The free WiFi will help a whole host of people - from fledgling businesses and community groups to children working on school projects. It is exactly the shot in the arm that Walkerburn needs in these difficult economic times.

"We saw the competition advertised and entered it not believing that we would ever win, so we are all absolutely thrilled and can't wait to have the service up and running in the new year."