First BT Superfast Broadband Cabinet in Rural Scotland Project Goes LIVE

The Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has announced that the first “high-speed fibre broadband” street cabinet (FTTC) has gone live in Buckie today, which also represents the first official deployment in the highlands under Scotland’s public and privately funded Digital Scotland project.

The main programme is split into two semi-separate parts. The first is focused upon the rural Highlands and Islands area and the second covers the rest of Scotland. The HIE side is funded by £126.4m from public bodies (e.g. Broadband Delivery UK, Scottish Government etc.) and just £19.4m from BT. The coverage target for BT’s FTTC/P network here is currently around 84% by 2016.

At the outset around 400 premises in Buckie, a burgh town on the Moray Firth coast, can now order fibre services and this figure will increase to more than 5,300 as BTOpenreach’s engineers work to complete the local upgrades over the coming weeks. Additional locations will follow, most of which have already been announced here and here.

Brendan Dick, Director of BT Scotland, said:

“The importance of this rather insignificant looking roadside cabinet cannot be underestimated. It’s the milestone that marks the first time access to fast fibre broadband has been provided to anyone in Scotland as part of this exciting programme.

Taking fibre broadband to the Highlands and Islands is the most challenging engineering project BT is tackling in the UK. It’s a massive operation which includes the complexities of laying 20 subsea fibre cables in a six-month weather window kicking off in May so it’s great to see our extensive planning and logistics paying off with a live cabinet here in Buckie.

The internet is playing an increasingly important part in all our lives – whether it’s small businesses keeping in touch with their customers and suppliers, children doing their homework or playing interactive games online, grandparents staying in touch with their grandchildren, or people working from home. Each of these things is made easier, quicker and better by faster fibre broadband.”

Combined with the current commercial roll-out plans, around 95% of premises in Scotland should have access to BT’s “fibre broadband” network by the end of 2017. But it’s interesting to note that Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, today described the target as “95% of premises in Scotland covered by 2017/18“, which is the first time we’ve seen 2018 being mentioned.

It’s worth reminding that HIE are also running a £5m Community Broadband Scotland (CBS) initiative, which claims to target those communities that are “least likely to benefit from a next generation broadband solution under the Step Change Programme“. The CBS scheme will provide “advice, guidance and project funding to help communities deliver improved digital connectivity“.