BT Based FTTC Broadband Rollout in Shetland Progresses

The £410 million Digital Scotland partnership with BT has, following Shetland Telecom’s local work and last year’s £26.9m deal to build 20 new fibre optic submarine cables around the Highlands and Islands (here), expanded its roll-out of “fibre broadband” (FTTC) services to premises in Lerwick on Shetland.

The Highlands and Islands (HIE) side of this project ultimately aims to deliver “fibre broadband” with speeds of ‘up to’ 80Mbps to 84% of premises across the region by 2016. Lerwick joins Keith in Moray as the latest local areas to be announced.

Additional premises in Nairn, Dingwall and Fort William will also be covered via in-fill (i.e. expanding BT’s existing FTTC network). Overall around 6,500 local homes and businesses should benefit across the locations.

Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister, said:

“The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband partnership is about rolling out reliable fibre services to our most remote areas. The first live locations in the Highlands and Islands were announced in February and around 10,000 premises can now access fibre broadband as a direct result of the project.”

This is an important step towards ensuring that Scotland has world-class digital connectivity by 2020. Our investment, and that of our partners in the project, will extend access to superfast broadband across Scotland. This will be a key factor in ensuring Scotland’s long-term economic prosperity.”

The project is also part of the wider Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) scheme, which has contributed £120m towards the overall effort to improve Scotland’s broadband infrastructure.