BROADBAND technology will be available in Teignmouth soon thanks to a campaign by local internet users.

Work on installing the £500,000 state-of-the-art technology in the town has started and will be up and running by May 21.

It will provide faster downloads and connection times for the town's world wide web users.

British Telecom will carry out the work at the town's telephone exchange.

Jason Mann, for BT, said the company was looking forward to providing the service for Teignmouth.

He said: 'This is wonderful news for Teignmouth because broadband brings a wealth of opportunities for users.

'The people of Teignmouth have shown great commitment to this system which will be available to the vast majority of people in the town.

'And we welcome inquiries from people who want to raise awareness of the system for their particular area.'

Dave Tickell, Teignmouth town Council clerk, was also delighted with the news.

He said: 'BT had a target figure of 300 people in the area to register support for broadband services.

'But the response was so good in the town that figure was well exceeded.

'It will make a lot of difference to people who use the internet.

'It will speed things up a great deal. But it's great news for Teignmouth.

'And thanks to all the people that backed the campaign to have broadband installed here.'

But Bishopsteignton businesswoman Marilyn Bannon was unsure how she would be affected by the installation in Teignmouth.

She said: 'It's wonderful for the people of Teignmouth, especially school children.

'They used to be taught on a fast system at school then come home to a system that was a lot slower.

'That will change when broadband arrives in May which will help their studies.

'But I run a business from home and use video conferencing and the internet.

'Now everybody else has got broadband it makes things a lot more difficult for me to use those facilities.

'The slower system is not compatible with the newer broadband one.

"In fact we may have to move to another area that has broadband to enable the business to work.

'It's something of a digital divide and it's not helpful to those who don't have broadband.'

l Dawlish is just over 150 short of BT's trigger level of 350 inquiries.