RECENT headlines suggesting Scotland’s “poor” digital infrastructure could threaten the economy, underestimate the country’s digital capabilities and miss the real issue (Call to future-proof digital Scotland, The National, August 30).
The new Queensferry Crossing is a magnificent achievement and is rightly praised – but the roll-out of fibre broadband across the whole of Scotland is an equally successful civil engineering project on a similar scale. It’s on time, on budget and, indeed, has delivered more coverage at higher speeds than originally planned, with work ongoing.
So why do we constantly sell ourselves short to the world, and potential inward investors, by claiming our infrastructure isn’t up to the job?
Independent analysis by Thinkbroadband shows that more than 90 per cent of Scottish households and business premises can now order broadband at speeds of 30Mbps and above. To put this in context, the UK’s independent Broadband Stakeholder Group has previously suggested the average household will require a maximum of 19Mbps by 2023.
New independent research has revealed that Scotland has the fastest average broadband speeds in the UK.
In a breakdown of results for the four UK nations, Scotland’s fixed broadband speeds were 36.8 per cent faster than the UK average, hitting a mean of 66.77Mbps when the UK average was 48.81Mbps. Scotland also led the field for the median (most commonly occurring) speeds, at a rate of 45.78Mbps compared with the UK’s 29.23Mbps.
So far, only around a third of premises have upgraded to the faster fibre-based speeds. Thinkbroadband estimates that if everyone in Scotland was to buy the fastest service now available to them over any network, the maximum mean download speed would rise to more than 150Mbps.
The Scottish economy would benefit most from greater exploitation of the internet capacities that are available right now. Thousands of small and medium-sized businesses, with average bandwidth needs, have access to Openreach’s fibre-based network at speeds of up to 80Mbps.
Meanwhile, any organisation with significant bandwidth demands can buy dedicated ultrafast services from BT and other services providers. We work with businesses to deliver what they need, where they need it most – not just in city centres.
But the story doesn’t end there. Openreach is now at the start of a new roll-out of next-generation ultrafast broadband infrastructure, using both fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) and its new, fast technology. The latter builds on the existing network so can be rolled out very quickly, without the need to dig up roads.
Openreach is currently deploying FTTP in the very rural communities of Skerray and Altnaharra in a trial looking at how such delivery can be made more efficient. And it is working to build FTTP connectivity for free into all new developments of 30 houses or more.
The bottom line is that Scotland can have whatever technology it wants from Shetland to Stranraer, but there is a cost. Detractors, who do not have to contribute to these costs, have said little about how they imagine such services will be paid for.
The geographic challenges – and associated costs – of laying fibre across Scotland are immense. Most people don’t live in easily wired apartment blocks.
At BT we’re always open to a respectful conversation about infrastructure. Unlike some of our detractors, we’re investing in the digital future for all of Scotland. But as a nation, we need to focus our efforts on making the most of the significant digital capabilities already in place right now, across all sectors of the economy.
Brendan Dick
Director, BT Scotland
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