THE BroadbandMedstead campaign has been gathering more momentum since the turn of the year, and is now just 74 registrations away from reaching its trigger level.

The BroadbandMedstead campaign represents an effort by internet users in the villages of Medstead and Four Marks to promote the benefits of broadband internet services, in the hope that enough local people will sign up for the services to persuade BT to enable the local telephone exchange with the appropriate ADSL technology.

The BroadbandMedstead campaign was inspired by the success of the BroadbandAlton campaign, which used the same methods to finally achieve their goal in November 2002. AltonÕs broadband connections will go live on February 28.

Though many in the outer villages believed broadband to be an unachievable goal, the BroadbandMedstead campaigners announced this week that 75 per cent of the 350 registrations required have already been received.

Spokesman Richard Care said: ÒWe are on a bit of a roll with our registration figures at the moment. Our total has increased by 30 in the last week, and by 20 in the previous week. Hopefully we can carry this momentum through until we hit our threshold.

ÒWe have been undertaking a leafletting campaign since Christmas, and this seems to have had a big effect on the numbers. We did one drop in Four Marks in the first week of January, and we also persuaded the local newsagent to slip some leaflets inside the newspapers that it delivers.

ÒWe have not yet leafletted Medstead, but we are going to do this in the next few days. Seeing how successful it has been in Four Marks, the Medstead leaflet drop will hopefully push us the rest of the way to our trigger level.

ÒApart from the leafletting, much of the promotion has been done by word of mouth. People have been busy networking, and once people in the villages hear that we are so close, they realise that Broadband is not just a pipe dream and get involved.

The BroadbandMedstead website can be found at http://www.broadbandmedstead.co.uk">www.broadbandmedstead.co.uk