ISP BorderLink Hints at New Wireless Broadband Mast for Yarrow UPDATE

Wireless broadband ISP BorderLink, which since 2017 claims to have deployed 72 relay stations across part of the eastern Scottish Borders and North Northumberland region (map pictured), has proposed the possibility of installing a new 4m high relay to serve rural properties around Peat Law (west of Selkirk).

The plan, which has so far only been tentatively proposed to a Selkirk Community Council meeting, would primarily be intended to cater for some poorly served businesses around Ettrick Road along the Yarrow valley area (not to be confused with another Yarrow Valley in England).

According to the presentation (Southern Reporter), BorderLink’s new service would be priced from around £35 per month and the installation charge is expected to be around £230 – £300 but could in theory be reduced to zero by harnessing one of the Government’s broadband subsidy (voucher) schemes.

Sadly there was no specific mention of broadband speeds or usage allowances for the aforementioned package, which are also absent from the ISP’s website. However the website does state that “our relays are capable of providing residences with broadband speeds of 100mbit as standard, with potential speeds of up to 1gbit.” Hopefully there will be more details in the future.

UPDATE 5th September 2019

Thanks to one of our readers for spotting details on BorderLink’s products, which oddly aren’t listed under the ‘Products’ section of their website that only offers an ‘Enquiry’ link. Residential packages range from £25 per month for a 10-15Mbps download (5Mbps upload) with unlimited usage and this rises to £55 for speeds of up to 100Mbps. By the looks of it if you want a symmetric Gigabit service then the price is likely to be £350 per month.

A Fair Usage Policy (FUP) does apply though, which states that “Certain applications, such as peer-to-peer file sharing, large file downloads and news groups, which use up lots of bandwidth and can have a negative impact on other customers, may operate slower at peak times. Our network’s busiest times are between 4 and 11pm on weekdays and all day at weekends, but it can be busy at others times as well – depending on the demands on the network. Customers who download large amounts at peak times regularly will have restrictions placed on their accounts to reduce their download speeds at peak times … We remove these restrictions when the network is not busy.”

We should point out that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) only allows “unlimited” terminology to be used if any restrictions imposed can be deemed “moderate” (i.e. significant speed reductions enforced by an ISP can easily run afoul of this, much as Virgin Media once found out – here).