Superfast broadband delivered to Knoydart

HOMES and businesses in Knoydart and the Loch Nevis area can now enjoy the benefits of superfast broadband thanks to a collaboration between a salmon farming firm and a rural broadband company.

Scottish Sea Farms and HebNet have upgraded the local infrastructure with a stateof-the-art, enterprise-grade wireless link between Skye and Knoydart capable of delivering superfast broadband of 30MB/s or more to end users, putting the area on a par with broadband provision in parts of central Scotland.

Adding to this, Scottish Sea Farms has invested in a dedicated fibre optic connection, supplied by community internet service provider HUBS CIC, which links the core networks of both organisations, guaranteeing capacity, availability and quick resolution in the event of a fault.

For the wider community, the increased capacity makes things like smart-enabled TVs, gaming and live streaming applications such as YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime an everyday reality.

The area had previously been served by an internet service that was struggling to cope with the increased demands being placed on it.

Jim Gallagher, managing director of Scottish Sea Farms, said: ‘Each and every pound our company invests is focused on one thing - enhancing the health and welfare of our fish - and this latest investment helps us do exactly that.

‘It also contributes towards our goal of ensuring that the communities in which we live and work derive maximum benefit from us being there, by offering access to the same high levels of connectivity that come as standard in more central locations.’

The new enterprise-grade wireless link went live last month, keeping HebNet on track to meet or exceed requirements set out within the Scottish Government’s commitment to deliver Next Generation Access broadband well ahead of the 2021 target.

Ian Bolas, director at HebNet, which also supplies broadband for the nearby Small Isles and Elgol, added: ‘Designing and installing the infrastructures required by the remote locations we serve is one challenge, but meeting the significant cost involved is quite another.

‘By working with Scottish Sea Farms, who met well over 50 per cent of those costs, we have been able to bring forward our own planned upgrades by as much as 12 months – something that will benefit local residents, businesses and tourists.’

Scottish Sea Farms is working with another community in Drimnin on the shores of the Sound of Mull to help bring high speed wi-fi to the area where previously there had been little or no internet access.