Using Cellular Services to Connect an Isolated Hotel in the Uk

Built as a dwelling for gamekeepers and shepherds in the early 1800's, Skiddaw House is located on a 1500ft high plateau between Skiddaw and Blencathra mountains in the English Lake District. Described by Alfred Wainwright as being 'At the back o'beyond', the house is over 3 miles from the nearest road, has no mains electricity, no postal delivery and no landline telephone.

Up until 2002 the Youth Hostel Association ran the building. After a 5 year gap Skiddaw House has reopened to provide a simple and an economical £10 a night lodging for walkers and cyclists.

The problem faced by the Skiddaw House Foundation Trust was how to operate a viable and successful hostel given that no one could book accommodation either by phone or by email. British Telecom had quoted a prohibitive sum of £65,000 (US$130,000) to install a landline some ten years ago. Satellite phone communication costs are unaffordable.

To make matters worse not even mobile phones are able to work in such a remote location.

Howevr, a trustee came across the Burnside Desktop Mobile [aka Premicell] on the Internet. Initial tests using an external aerial connected to the Burnside unit concluded that only the Vodafone GSM/GPRS network could provide reliable phone and data communications. The Burnside terminal was then fitted with a Vodafone SIM on a pay monthly tariff with a 120MB web browsing pack.

An ordinary desktop phone and a PC connected via USB cable to the Burnside T900 now provides voice communications, Internet access, email and SMS text messaging.

Since the Burnside unit can work from mains or from 8-32VDC, the terminal is permanently powered by the hostel's DC batteries. These in turn are charged from a standby LPG powered generator and trickle charged by solar cells.

Martin Webster, Warden of Skiddaw House commented "I cannot imagine us having to go back to using the Citizens Band radio we tried to use in the past. The Burnside terminal has transformed our lives up here in the mountains enabling visitors to phone or email their bookings and letting us keep in contact with our friends and relatives. This was never possible before. We are indebted to David Robson and his colleagues at Burnside Telecom for their help in supplying and installing this vital piece of equipment".

Posted to the site on 20th September 2007