I had the pleasure of speaking on BBC Radio Scotland earlier – discussing the state of High Speed Broadband in Scotland. You can listen again on the BBC iPlayer here (at 1:33:25)
Here’s my notes (apologies – they’ve only been given a quick tidy up!) for some of the questions we discussed, and some of the topics that (given more time) we’d have covered.
Q What’s broadband access like in Scotland?
It’s getting better… slowly some people will certainly say, but it’s getting there. A recent Offcom report predicted more than 60% of premises currently able to connect to a high Speed Broadband network, but there’s no denying the fact, and I’m sure we’ll have this confirmed by many of the listeners, that certain areas of the country are continuing to struggle with slow speeds, some with virtually no access at all.
Q What causes issues with speed?
Worth mentioning – if you have any sort of standard Broadband right now, if High speed fibre becomes available – you won’t just be automatically upgraded.. so you will need to check, and then apply to upgrade your service from your current provider, or indeed change to a new one.
But assuming you do have access to broadband of any sort… the main issue that affects speed, is based around your location – how far away are you from your local telephone exchange, how far away are you from the nearest cabinet (the green boxes you see on street corners).. typically – the further away you are, the slower the speed… and if you’re too far away – as is the case for many businesses and individuals in rural areas, then for many – broadband of any decent speed is still a dream.
Q Does this typically happen in rural, remote areas?
It happens everywhere, but it’s certainly more obvious in remote areas… not just because people tend to be geographically further away from the infrastructure, but because it’s taking longer to get these areas upgraded to higher speeds compared to many of the cities and larger towns.
Q Is there anything a person can do to improve broadband speeds in their area?
You can move!! Sounds extreme, but I know people who have chosen where to love, or where to locate their business based on broadband availability!..
If moving is out of the question, there really isn’t much more you can do other than wait until faster high speed broadband comes into your areas, but there are some smaller practical things you can try which might give the impression that you’re getting faster speeds… – use a hard wired “Ethernet” connection to your broadband router rather than a Wi-Fi one if possible, make sure you’ve got what’s called micro-filters plugged into all your telephone access points, and make sure your router itself is plugged into the MAIN phone line socket.. not into an extension lead at the other end of your house. These will all help a little, but probably not as much as you’d like.
Q Can you tell us about the plans to roll out high speed broadband to the rural communities?
There’s an initiative in Scotland right now called “Digital Scotland” – and it’s a mixture of public sector and private sector investment to boost the broadband capability of the country
Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, local councils – Then on the private side – we essentially have BT. The totals costs to rollout superfast broadband across Scotland are expected to be in the region of £400 million
Scottish Government’s commitment to deliver world-class connectivity in Scotland by 2020
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (one of the key partners in the rollout in rural areas such as Bute) says that by 2016, the aim is for 84% of premises with access to Fibre.
Q How is the roll out going on so far, according to plan?
You can check the exact status of where things are at for your area – via the Digital scotland website:
www.digitalscotland.org/whereandwhen
Enter your telephone number or postoce and it will tell you if High Speed is an option for you…
In terms of numbers – an Offcom report last year estimated that 64% of premises in Scotland were able to connect to a network with High Speed broadband capability, and it’s certainly further improved since then, but if you look at specific areas of the country, the picture appears a little different…
High speed fibre is very common now in all our major cities.. – as you’d expect, but when you start to go beyond the big urban areas, it gets a little different…
Take the whole of Argyle and Bute for example.. if you look at Digital Scotland’s own availability Map as I just mentioned, other than Rosthsay.. the only other confirmed areas right now are parts of Campbeltown, Around the areas of Helensburgh and Dalmally, and just south of Glencoe. That leaves a huge geographical area where high speed broadband is either “coming soon”, “planned”, or “under investigation”….
That said.. if you go with the figures in the February progress report produced by Audit Scotland – then it does suggest that the whole initiative is actually slightly ahead of the Governments interim target of 84% of premises on high speed internet by March 2016.
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Is High Speed Broadband coming to your location soon?[/caption]Q And how does Scotland compare to other countries?
Many people and businesses do have real concerns that the large investment required still won’t deliver speeds are truly competitive when you compare it with elsewhere in the world.
Germany aims to provide speeds of 50 Mb/s to all households by 2018 (100% of the population getting speeds of typically double here in Scotland).
Sweden is aiming for speeds of 100MBps by 2020 (4 times the speeds most of us will have).
(Audit Scotland recent report)
Q How long does it take to bring fibre optic to a community?
It can vary considerably depending on so many factors, but typically – from the time the decision is made to put in high speed access, to the time it actually goes live and can be used – you’re typically looking at about 1 year.
They have to plan it, scope it all out, do the surveys, work out how many new cabinets and what length of cable they need, then they’ve got to prepare the exchange, upgrade the cabinets, lay the cables (which often involves lengthy disputes around land ownership and digging up the roads etc), test everything, and then go live. It’s not quite as simple as flicking a switch, but like so many people out there desperately awaiting higher speeds I wish it was!!
Speaking personally…
I stay in a wee town on the west coast, we’re hardly remote, and when I recently upgraded my standard broadband to High Speed fibre.. I went from 8 to 12. A far cry from the promised likelihood of 20. Now one of the reasons for this is because I’m affected by how far away my house is from the Cabinet… The further away you are, the lower speeds you get.. and it’s going to be like this for a lot of people, especially in more remote areas.
I do a lot of consultancy work for small businesses in Argyll and Bute, and other rural areas to like ARRAN – and Just to give you an example…
One of our clients is a lady called Lorna from the Old Byre Visitor centre on the west coast of Arran in Machrie – a great local business which has a shop and a cafe, and like any business of that nature, she needs to use the internet – BUT she gets speeds of less than 0.4mbp/s, and has basically been told that high speed fibre will NOT be coming anytime in the near future. Here’s what she thinks:
“I feel angry, I pay my tax, VAT, pay for broadband the same as those with decent speeds but it seems that no one cares. I would challenge a government body to come and do their day’s work here using my broadband! How are small rural economies to grow if we can’t move forward?”
And it’s not just rural areas by any means where people have concerns over speed:
Over on Twitter:
@nsdesign @BBCRadioScot Pa19 l/line <1Meg so had to install satellite v costly circa £2.5k pa – but necessary to trade!! #disadvantaged
— Scottish Gritting® (@ScotGritting) July 23, 2015
@nsdesign @BBCRadioScot home gr8 (G14) 100meg. Work is v slow – up & down 2meg for team of 8 (Chamber in Paisley pa3 Glasgow airport)
— Renfrewshire Chamber (@RenfrewshireCoC) July 23, 2015
Are we just complaining for the sake of it? Does it really matter?
YES it matters! At a general level – good internet access is and rightly should be considered an everyday necessity.
First off – if you’re a business – then the reliance of internet based technology is huge. Email, file storage and sharing, a lot of business telecoms are now delivered over the internet now, video on demand etc – we live in a world where you almost cannot be in business nowadays without a significant usage of the internet… and if the government is really determined to have us compete globally, then we need fast access speeds to rival other European and global countries whose speeds surpass us.
And even if you’re not a business reliant on broadband to trade. Look at how we live nowadays. Our phones are always connected, our televisions are downloading family movies on demand, we’re using the web and social media more than ever, uploading photos, and watching YouTube videos.. all of which is putting more and more demands on your web connection.
Is there help available for my business?
If you’re a Scottish business (which meets certain criteria) you can get financial help with the costs of setting up a new high speed connection. Over 1000 Scottish businesses have already done so, and this could provide up to a £3000 grant – but it is just towards the installation and connection of the new high speed access, not the ongoing running costs.
More details at: www.connectionvouchers.co.uk