POTENTIAL internet users in parts of the Dales are being warned they may not be able to hook up to certain communication lines.

Barry Peters says his company, YorkshireNet, cannot access ISDN, the new high-speed communication system, because the local exchange cannot cope with the technology.

"BT sent me the refusal notice the same day a personalised mail-shot arrived offering the ISDN service. It's ridiculous," said Mr Peters, whose Arncliffe-based company is just 200 yards away from the exchange.

"BT said it could only supply the system if I could get 15 other people to buy in. We are talking about Littondale where, in the whole of the area, there are only 90 homes. Do they insist on that proportion in London?

"We are a business providing jobs in the Dales, precisely the kind of business BT is encouraging. We are exactly the type of company which should benefit from ISDN."

Mr Peters set up his company, specialising in internet marketing, three years ago, and employs four people.

Now the matter is being taken up by County Coun Mike Doyle, who has urged the authority to investigate the availability of ISDN links in rural parts of North Yorkshire.

He added: "We might need to lobby for an active competitor for BT in the county, for I fear that otherwise BT will continue to sit back and say 'You can't have it'."

A spokesman for BT said it was hoped to have the Arncliffe exchange upgraded to take ISDN by April 1999.

"All the exchanges will be done eventually, but it is a matter of upgrading those where it is most needed. Arncliffe will be brought forward on the list since there has been a request from a customer."

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