TVWS Broadband Reaches 100 Rural Premises in Trossachs

A public investment of £50,000 by the Stirling Council in Scotland has enabled 72 homes and 30 businesses in the remote rural Trossachs community of Brig o’ Turk to access broadband speeds of 50Mbps+ via a new fixed wireless network, which harnesses TV White Space (TVWS) tech from UK ISP Broadway Broadband (Broadway Partners).

The TVWS technology has been around for a few short years now and is still being improved. As a technology it’s cleverly designed to harness the small gaps of radio spectrum that exist between TV channels in the Digital Terrestrial TV (DTTV) band, which operate upwards from 470MHz (stops at around 700MHz as this band is due to be released for 4G and 5G mobile services in 2020).

Normally such gaps would be intended to help minimise the risk of interference between channels but TVWS makes use of a new dynamic spectrum management database, which means that the gaps can instead be used to deliver data. Broadway Partners has already conducted a number of similar deployments (examples here and here). More traditional 5GHz wireless links often have a role to play too.

The new network has now been deployed to cover around 100 premises in the Brig o’ Turk village. In the picture you can see the new relay wireless station, which is located on one of the hills just outside of the village and this is supported by renewable battery power from both solar and wind generation.

Stuart Oliver, Senior Manager at Stirling Council, said:

“Having access to superfast broadband is truly transformative for rural residents and business, and the completion of this innovative project is fantastic news for people in the Brig o’ Turk area.

This is another excellent example of the Council working in partnership with local people and other agencies to deliver tailored broadband solutions.

Collecting two national awards was a brilliant boost for everyone involved in the programme and it reaffirmed our resolve to connect more rural communities. This latest announcement shows we are continuing to drive forward with this key Council priority.”

Prices tend to start from £29.99 per month (£24.99 with a Christmas discount) for their unlimited 50Mbps (5Mbps upload) service on an 18 month minimum contract term, which thanks to various voucher schemes often includes free installation (outside of that the normal standard installation and router fee is £620 +vat upfront). Faster packages exist but these aren’t available everywhere.

The Stirling Council has a long history of helping to support alternative network deployments in rural areas, such as for Balquhidder, Argarty & Kilbryde, Stockiemuir, Carron Valley and Auchenteck. Overall about 600 premises have now benefited from these projects, often using either or both full fibre (FTTP) and fixed wireless technologies.

Stirling itself is also benefiting from Cityfibre and Vodafone’s rollout of a new 1Gbps FTTH broadband network.