Innovation can get rural broadband up to speed

Despite endless government promises to roll out superfast fibre-optic broadband across the country, farmers and others living in remote rural areas continue to find themselves at the back of the supply queue.

With all indicators pointing towards innovation and the deployment of new technology being at the core of future farm policy, this lack of reliable, highspeed broadband is viewed by many in the industry as a major limiting factor in the adoption of new techniques.

In response there has been a growth in alternative means of providing reliable, high-speed coverage – with 4 and 5G mobile connectivity touted by some while others see satellite or white space provision as the answer.

However, one of the more developed technologies increasingly available in country areas is fixed wireless network provision – which can beam and bounce signals to remote locations with only a minimum of investment in infrastructure.

While some of these services have been set up by enthusiastic community groups, Lothian Broadband – which operates from the hamlet of Humbie south of Edinburgh, serving East and Midlothian– 0 Rural broadband speeds are vital to farming’s future is amongst a handful of commercial operators providing a professionally-backed service to undersupplied farms, rural businesses and houses in Scotland.

Managing director Nic Mccormick said that farming businesses accounted for a considerable proportion of the company’s customers and poor landline provision was the main driver of a growing demand which was set to see them expand their area of operation.

He said that the Internet of Things (IOT) was becoming increasingly important in the agricultural sector, allowing remote control and monitoring of equipment such as grain driers and video cameras to keep an eye on calving cows but added that the low speed of rural broadband – often well below the 10 megabits per second considered an acceptable minimum – couldn’t cope with this.

The company’s hybrid fibre/wireless system, said Mccormick, allowed antennae high on farm buildings to transmit the signal – and even businesses and dwellings several miles away could receive a fibre-fast signal if they were within line-of-sight.

He said that while the Mimosa Network equipment they used could achieve speeds in excess of 200 megabits per second, few applications yet needed these speeds – so lower rates were supplied.

“However this leaves us considerable potential to uprate the service supplied as and when faster speeds are required,” said Mccormick.

Jaimie Fink, chief product officer and co-founder of Silicon Valley-based company Mimosa Networks, said the move towards better broadband provision in Scotland was currently ahead of that in many of the main agricutlrual areas of the US.

“While they are only just realising that there is a problem in many of the US’S big farming areas, producers in Scotland are already tracking down solutions to the widespread problem of poor rural internet provision,” said Fink.

“Together, Lothian Broadband and Mimosa can transform the digital landscape in Scotland.”