An award-winning dairy business is backing a campaign to have a high-speed internet service installed across rural parts of Wales.

Gareth and Falmai Roberts have turned a part-time income from the milk produced on their 50-acre Denbighshire farm into a �1m-per-year yogurt enterprise with a dozen employees.

We have to expend much more time and resources as a result of not having broadband and we could even risk losing sales

Dairy producer Gareth Roberts

In addition to supplying to supermarkets across England and Wales, Tal-y-Bryn Farm, at Llannefydd, has recently begun exporting its wares to Europe.

But Mr and Mrs Roberts claim the company's expansion is in danger of being held back unless it is has access to the super-fast broadband internet technology used by rivals.

They are backing a campaign by the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) to put more pressure on the Government to roll-out broadband services in rural areas.

The CLA argues the lack of the state-of-the-art IT facilities provided by BT is holding back firms and project in country districts which are trying to create jobs in the rural economy in the wake of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Gareth Roberts wants broadband at his dairy

The campaign comes at it has emerged that BT has come up with a way of supplying broadband to rural areas in the UK at a fraction of the usual cost, with two sites in north Wales included in a UK pilot project.

The trial of 'broadband-in-a-box' could mean that areas with small populations can join in the internet access revolution that has so far eluded them.

The Roberts have taken a stall in the food hall at the Denbighshire and Flintshire Show to promote their Village Dairy products.

Mr Roberts, who was highly commended in the CLA Wales 2001Rural Business Challenge Award, said he understood broadband would give him an internet connection three times faster than his current telephone line-based system while also reducing costs and staff time.

Village Dairy products are sold in the UK and Europe

"We have not applied for broadband because we have been advised by computer experts that it is not available in our area as we are too far away from the enabled exchange in Denbigh," he said.

"Our business has been on the internet for five years and we do receive some orders via e-mail and our website, but we are eager to make much greater use of the net as we have recently started to export yogurts into Belgium and France.

"However, we will not be able to make significant use of the internet while we are reliant on the much slower ISDN service.

"Increasingly UK supermarkets are demanding that we use their internet facilities for invoicing, billing and general communications.

"This puts our business at a disadvantage because we have to expend much more time and resources complying with such trading conditions as a result of not having broadband, and we could even risk losing sales."

Rural firms would benefit from broadband

BT has always insisted it was only economically viable to roll out broadband to areas with between 200 and 400 customers due to the cost of ADSL-enabling a telephone exchange, which it estimates at between a quarter and half a million pounds.

It is now planning to trial a scaled-down version of the standard ADSL equipment which will mean as few as 16 customers can be connected to the technology.

Corwen and Penrhyndeudraeth are two of areas where BT is testing the new system.