Scottish Salmon Farm Helps Village to Get Wireless Broadband

Homes and businesses both in and around the rural village of Scourie, on the north west coast of Scotland, look set to benefit from faster wireless broadband ISP connectivity, which came after a local Salmon Farm (Loch Duart) awarded the area £14,400 from its community fund to help cover the installation.

Apparently the new service will be delivered by Scottish Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) ISP Highland Wireless (HW), which charges £35 per month for access to their unlimited internet connection (plus £200 one-off for installation, which in some areas is free).

The website states that download speeds of 50Mbps, which could soon reach 100Mbps, are possible. A cheaper package also exists with capped data usage and slower speeds. Assuming all goes well then the new network is due to be rolled out “later this year.”

Mark Warrington, MD of Loch Duart, said (Northern Times):

“As a business which works in isolated communities across the Highlands and Islands, we know how vital it is for people to be connected. We are proud to be able to help connect these communities through the Salmon Pool Fund.

This funding will ensure people living in Scourie and the surrounding areas can, for the first time, access high speed internet as fibre services currently do not reach them.”

We should point out that this is by no means the first time that a community fund setup by a Salmon farm (wind farms often do something similar) has helped to fund better wireless broadband connectivity. A similar scheme has already helped to connect homes around Loch Nevis (here) and another one is working its magic for the highlands village of Drimnin (here).

UPDATE 9:27am

The source article incorrectly put the ISP as Highland Community Broadband, but it’s actually Highland Wireless. We’ve corrected this above.