The Scottish Government has announced that it will set-up a Rural Connectivity Commission as part of their new proposals, which would aim to improve the country’s postal, transport, mobile and broadband Internet access connectivity in the event of a vote in favour of becoming independent from the United Kingdom (i.e. referendum on 18th September 2014).
The commission, which forms part of a new constitutional paper (Connecting Rural Scotland), will be tasked with considering how to deliver a “better deal for our rural communities and businesses“, while also ensuring “clarity for industry and stability for investors“.
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At present the £400m+ Digital Scotland initiative, which is partly being funded by investment from the central Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme, aims to ensure that 85% of premises in Scotland can access BT’s “high-speed fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network by the end of 2015 and this should rise to around 95% by the end of 2017.
But many questions remain unanswered, such as how both BDUK’s scheme and the country’s future requirements might be impacted in the event that Scotland were to suddenly become independent, especially given that much of Scotland is rural and thus typically more expensive to serve.
Similarly there are questions over how UK businesses (mobile operators and ISPs) might need to re-arrange themselves and how regulation would be handled post-Ofcom. As we found out when first exploring these areas two years ago, none of these questions are currently easy to answer (here).
Naturally these are also some of the questions that the new Connecting Rural Scotland paper could have sought to tackle, although in reality it’s likely that many of the most complicated decisions won’t take place until after the referendum. As usual with all things political, the SNP dominated Scottish Government currently exudes only the positives, just as the central UK government primarily touts the negatives.
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Connecting Rural Scotland – Digital Connectivity (Quote)
Improved digital connectivity, including mobile telecoms and broadband. In an independent Scotland, we would have the power to issue future spectrum licences and could include coverage obligations that ensure maximum availability of mobile telecoms throughout Scotland as a whole. We would also be able to consider more flexible approaches for broadband that could extend digital services.
Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister, said:
“Our rural communities make a very valuable contribution to Scotland’s economy and have huge potential to develop even further. Too often people who live outside urban areas poorly served by the market and the UK Government when it comes to services vital in the 21st century.
With independence, we will have the powers to regulate these crucial services and to remove barriers which are holding back rural areas from achieving their full potential. There are opportunities to change so much for the better and that is why we are proposing setting up a Rural Connectivity Commission and taking forward improvements in five key areas for the benefit of rural Scotland.”
So what does the paper actually say? Sadly not a lot for 12 pages. Indeed anybody hoping for some solid answers to the big questions might be left disappointed. But it’s not all vague explanations and the document does moot one potentially very positive change, which states that “Scotland would also consider the case for a broadband USO” (Universal Service Obligation).
At present the UK government only promises a Universal Service Commitment (USC) of at least 2Mbps (internet download speed in Megabits per second) for 100% of the UK’s population by 2012 2015 2017, which is the soft option next to a mandatory and legally binding USO. Naturally any fixed line USO is likely to fall on the dominant operator, which would still be BT, and they’re unlikely to be too pleased with the idea.
On the other hand we are starting to approach a point where having a USO for broadband might finally become viable and indeed we suspect that most in the United Kingdom would welcome it, except that right now only the Scottish government seems enthusiastic for one. On the downside BT might well complain that maintaining a viable USO would increase its costs which, on top of Scotland’s rural geography, could result in higher prices for consumers. As before, more questions than answers.
UPDATE 1:45pm
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The Scottish Government has also allocated an additional £2.5 million of funding to support rural broadband connectivity, which should bring the total investment in the related Community Broadband Scotland (CBS) programme to £7.5 million. This investment is in addition to the Digital Scotland deployment with BT.
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