Superfast broadband for every home in Britain - except Argyll
THE QUEEN’S speech promised that every home in Britain will get the legal right to high speed broadband.
Despite this, Argyll and Bute continues to lag behind in broadband connectivity and it is seen as a priority for Argyll and Bute MSP Michael Russell, who has already tabled four questions on the matter.
There have been regular complaints of slow broadband which many say has not been helped by the rollout of superfast broadband.
Mr Russell said: ‘The very poor communication of information on broadband rollout is causing real anger across this constituency. There has also been a real deterioration in the performance of BT over the last year on other matters such as restoring service when phones are down.
‘There are, of course, places which are not due to get service and more action is needed to ensure they do not miss out.
‘BT has delayed help for some of those areas, including the one in which I live, by refusing to give information on its plans. That must be sorted as a matter of urgency.
‘Finally, many of us would be very reluctant to see additional work for BT on the next stages of this programme – the 100 per cent roll-out – unless BT management hugely ups its game. That point needs to be considered by the Scottish Government before it makes any new commitments to the company.’
BT said that providing broadband to rural areas is one of the biggest technological challenges in Britain, if not Europe.
A statement said: ‘Only five per cent of UK premises receive less than 10Mbps currently and we have suggested an approach that could help those premises. Openreach, BT’s local network business, is ready to play a supportive role. It’s exploring a range of potential solutions. Due to the laws of physics, broadband signals carried over phone lines deteriorate over distance. We are also working on technology to significantly extend the speed of broadband carried over very long copper lines.’
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) points out there are alternatives to BT. It is managing Community Broadband Scotland and Digital Scotland’s fibre roll-out. Digital Scotland aims to bring fibre broadband into areas the market won’t reach.
An HIE spokesperson said: ‘The roll-out is under way in Argyll and Bute and within the current contract will reach more than eight out of 10 of the local authority’s premises by the end of 2016.’
HIE admitted, however, this was not the answer to everyone in Argyll and Bute. It is looking at what funding and technology might be available to make sure everyone has fast broadband.
The spokesperson added: ‘There are places, particularly where the number of premises is small, and where homes are quite far apart, that the main project technology isn’t efficient. The most regularly used technology is fibre to a cabinet then the broadband runs on the phone lines to the premise.
‘The signal diminishes depending on the length of line – so the technology works best where there are premises relatively close to each other.’