I MAKE no apologies for shouting from the rooftops about how great the Stirling constituency is. I’m lucky to represent the part of our country that really does have it all: spectacular natural scenery, inspiring historical heritage, and now it is the first gigabit city in Scotland (and, indeed, in the UK).

This week kicked off for me with attending a virtual celebration event with CityFibre – the company that has made all of this possible. Barely four years ago, the idea of stretching full-fibre connectivity to every business and residential premises in Stirling was pitched to the local area, and I imagine many read the headline announcement thinking “yeah, right”, so unbelievable and ambitious was the prospect. This was a part of a £10 million commitment to Stirling City from CityFibre and Vodafone to ensure that everyone who lived within the city area would be able to access speeds of up to 1000Mbps – or a Gigabit.

For those who aren’t technically minded (I confess, I often fall into this bracket), 1000Mbps is fast. Very fast. For reference, the widely accepted definition of so-called superfast broadband is just 24Mbps. The EU’s definition

(and the Scottish Government’s R100 programme target) is greater at 30Mbps.

There’s just so much more that fibre can do which traditional copper cables can’t. This isn’t new technology; it was known as far back as the 1970s that the UK’s advancement in digital technology would not be best served on a copper network. There was a period of time that the UK joined Japan and the United States in leading the way in fibre optic roll-out and technology. However, a decision by the Thatcher government around market competition paved the way for the roll-out of the vastly inferior copper network that connects most properties even today.

Prior to this, BT had at least two factories in the UK dedicated to producing fibre optic cable. They were both sold off to Fujitsu and HP, with their assets shipped over to South East Asia. Essentially, the Thatcher government killed superfast broadband’s roll-out in the UK before it even had a chance to exist.

That, in Scotland, is what we’re up against now. The Scottish Government has moved mountains in reaching businesses and households with superfast broadband. The Stirling constituency that I represent truly is Scotland in miniature. Much of the rural part of the constituency is sparsely populated and therefore difficult to reach with high-speed broadband infrastructure. Yet figures from last year show that around 90% of properties across this constituency now have access to what is classed as superfast broadband (30Mbps) -– much of which is thanks to Scottish Government intervention.

This is an incredible achievement, particularly considering telecommunications remains largely reserved to Westminster and the communities I represent have been let down by the UK Government’s roll-out of superfast broadband for so long. However, I am all too aware that the mistakes of the past in planting time-limited infrastructure have meant that getting full-fibre-to-the-premises, ultra-fast broadband to every single property is not, at this stage, feasible. So, for now, ensuring that people have access to super (not ultra) fast speeds is the priority.

However, attending the celebratory event with CityFibre this week has again demonstrated to me what having access to this incredible technology can unlock.

Now around 18,000 premises in the Stirling City area are connected (or are able to be if they choose to sign up), it has meant that city residents on the network have had access to faster speeds when working from home – a game-changer in these Covid times. I know from speaking to colleagues in Stirling Council that the local authority is doing what it can to connect much of its estate to the fibre network, including libraries and schools. Indeed, locally, around 7000 teachers and pupils will be able to access ultra-fast, full-fibre broadband in school buildings.

In addition to this, there are dizzying estimates around what this new network can achieve in terms of economic growth and job creation. The Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal has, at its heart, transforming the local economy into one that competes on the digital stage. Our future is online. Young people growing up today will have jobs when they’re older that don’t yet exist. Scotland needs to make sure it’s ahead of the game on this so that as the natural progression towards a more digital world continues, we emerge as a serious player.

CityFibre is involved in full-fibre network roll-outs in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Renfrewshire. Stirling was the first city to be completed. There’s a clear similarity between these places: they are all densely populated. From the perspective of private investment, they are where the market is.

However, the majority of Scotland, like the majority of communities I represent, don’t live in these places. Private business has demonstrated what it can do in these areas, but we should keep all options and possible solutions on the table about how this service can be brought to rural communities.

Scotland is not an easy country to roll this sort of infrastructure out to. We are home to the most spectacular and sparsely populated parts of the UK. But as the

digital revolution marches on, the reliance on connectivity becomes more important, and the divide between what private investors are willing to do in cities and in rural landscapes seems to get wider.

With continued success in broadband roll-out by the Scottish Government, we need to keep in mind that there may never be an end to what we need to do to update our tech infrastructure. It’s what our economy and livelihoods rely on. It’s a conversation that isn’t going away any time soon.