UltraNetworks Deploy 5G Broadband to Reach Part of Rural Aberdeenshire

Internet provider UltraNetworks has used vouchers from the Scottish Government to help it upgrade and deploy a new 5G Standalone (SA) based fixed wireless (FWA) network from Mormond Hill. The site will be able to serve homes and businesses in rural parts of North East Aberdeenshire (Scotland) with 1Gbps+ broadband speeds.

Just to recap. 5G SA represents a pure end-to-end 5G wireless network technology that can deliver ultra-low latency times, greater energy efficiency, better upload speeds, network slicing, improved support for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, increased reliability and security when compared with older 4G or mixed 4G + 5G based networks. The technology is more familiar to mobile users, but it can also be used in fixed wireless networks.

In this case, UltraNetworks were able to harness the Scottish Government’s R100 SBVS voucher scheme (here) to deploy their new 5G SA broadband solution at the Mormond Hill site, which is a former NATO telecoms base that was used during the Cold War. The kit was deployed on top of an existing 40m high mast and should provide coverage across 600 square kilometres, which includes more than 1,000 SBVS eligible premises.

The project will initially provide 5G SA broadband to 31 premises on the outskirts of Fraserburgh (9 of these have already been reached), but others will follow. The official announcement claims that customers “could experience speeds of up to 1.2 Gigabits per second (Gbps)“, although the provider’s website is only promoting packages going up to 300Mbps.

Jerry Briant, Managing Director at UltraNetworks, said:

“One of the challenges of 5G is that it’s still very new, a lot of research is required and it’s a steep learning curve to really get to grips with the full architecture of a 5G network.

It requires multiple systems to be working together to deliver the network and troubleshooting can be complex, but we’re delighted to see this service go live, thanks to SBVS.”

So far as we can tell, there are currently only two 5G SA broadband packages available via their Ultra 5G service, one costs £44.99 per month for an unlimited 50Mbps connection, while the other costs £54.99 and will give you speeds of up to 300Mbps. The standard home equipment usually costs £469, but this and the installation is usually free with the voucher scheme.

The main community of Fraserburgh is already quite well covered by Openreach’s FTTP network, so this new service is focused more on the surrounding rural premises that have yet to be reached by such a network.