Openreach Extends FTTP Broadband to Remote Outer Hebrides

At a significant cost – around £4,000 per premises – Openreach (BT) and the £442m (public and private investment) Digital Scotland (DSSB) project have today announced that they’ve deployed their Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to several tiny Outer Hebrides (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) communities.

The final stage of the DSBB project is already known to be focusing most of its efforts upon “full fibre” (FTTP) ultrafast broadband infrastructure (here and here), which is now reaching some of the remotest rural communities in the whole of the United Kingdom. Much of this is being funded by clawback (gainshare), which is public money reinvested via BT as a result of high take-up in intervention areas.

The latest examples being touted today are Grimsay and Great Bernera in the Outer Hebrides, which were previously only being catered for via a slow fixed wireless connection that offered top download speeds of around 2Mbps and restricted data allowances.

Grimsay is a tiny island (3km long and half again in width) with just 113 homes (mostly a fishing settlement), which is joined to North Uist and Benbecula via a small causeway and all can now order ultrafast speeds (65% take-up). Similarly 220 homes on Great Bernera, which resides 100 miles north of Grimsay and sits off the north-west coast of Lewis (linked to the main island by a road bridge), can also order to the new network.

Naturally this kind of remote civil engineering work does not come cheap and required 90km of new fibre cables, which is said to have returned a cost of around £4,000 per premises. Such a subsidy would be completely uneconomical without significant public investment through DSSB and this is one of the reasons why Scotland’s future follow-on R100 (Reaching 100%) project has set aside a large budget of £600m.

Joe FitzPatrick, Scottish Government Minister for Public Health, said:

“Many people living here are engaged in traditional industries, with the island renowned for the quality of the seafood caught off its shores. Full fibre not only enables local industries to engage fully online, but future-proofs the island for economic development and growth. In a world where technology is a main driver, good connectivity levels the playing field, creating new opportunities and stemming depopulation.

It will also undoubtedly be of great benefit to residents in the area when it comes to healthcare. Programmes such as Attend Anywhere gives patients the ability to have virtual appointments with healthcare professionals via their laptop, tablet or mobile – a service the residents of Grimsay and Great Bernera can now access.

However, we recognise that not everyone has access to such services and that more must be done. This is why, despite the reserved nature of telecoms in the United Kingdom, we have made the commitment to deliver 100% superfast broadband access in Scotland and backed that commitment with the substantial investment of £600 million in the procurement phase for the Reaching 100% programme.”

Robert Thorburn, Openreach’s partnership director for Scotland, said:

“When we started planning the Digital Scotland rollout, Western Isles was hands down the most difficult place to build. It has the lowest population density in the UK and many communities are comprised of remote and scattered households.

This project is a game-changer for the people of the Western Isles, with a lasting legacy for the future. In a place like Grimsay, technology is truly life-changing – opening up markets and innovation for businesses and connecting islanders to each other, the world and vital services.

There’s more to do, but if we can bring full fibre broadband to a scattered community like Grimsay, then it can be done anywhere.”

Much of the above work is only possible because of a 2014 effort by BT to build 20 new subsea fibre routes at a cost of around £27 million (here), which stretched across the Minch from Ullapool to Stornoway.

As it stands today Openreach’s superfast network has reached nearly 80% of premises on the islands (using the older “superfast” definition of 24Mbps+) and the take-up rate is currently 66%.

The focus is now switching toward the R100 project, which has sadly faced numerous delays (here and here) and seems extremely unlikely to reach its original aspiration of 100% coverage by the end of 2021. A supplier is expected to be chosen before the end of 2019, which is roughly a year later than originally planned.

At present around 180,000 premises across Scotland are deemed eligible for intervention under R100 (across three lots), which given the £600m equates to a significant subsidy of around £3,300+ per premises.

The 20 Subsea Cable Routes (2014)
Largs – Millport
Kilchattan Bay- Millport
Rothesay – Toward
Kilfinan – Lochgilphead
Campbeltown – Shiskine
Corrie – West Kilbride
Jura – Port Askaig
Glenbarr – Port Ellen
Jura – Ormsary
Kilchoan – Tobermory
Craignure – Oban
Ardgour – Onich
Stornoway – Ullapool
Lochmaddy – Leverburgh
Carnan – Dunvegan
Ardvasar – Mallaig
Dervaig – Scarinish
Lochboisdale – Eriskay
Eriskay – North Bay
Evie – Westray