Highland Broadband Extends FTTP Network to Halkirk in Scotland
Alternative ISP Highland Broadband (Lothian Broadband), which is building a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) network across rural parts of the Scottish Highlands, has confirmed that they’ve worked with network partner ADTRAN to cover the Caithness village of Halkirk.
The community, which is home to a population of almost 1,000, previously didn’t have access to any gigabit-capable broadband networks, until Highland Broadband completed the extension of its network into the area.
According to the announcement, locals originally only had access to super slow speeds of 2.8Mbps. But so far as we can tell most of the local premises could already access speeds of much faster than that via Openreach’s 40-80Mbps capable FTTC (VDSL2) network.
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Colin Woodward, MD of Highland Broadband, said:
“At Highland Broadband, we’re committed to delivering world-class connectivity to Scotland’s furthest away communities. Halkirk’s transformation proves that no town is too small or too far away to benefit from full-fiber broadband. Leveraging Adtran’s technology and the support of its team, we’ve built a network that provides Gigabit speeds and ensures long-term, high-quality internet access.
This deployment expands opportunities for residents and businesses, enabling education, commerce and digital services that were previously out of reach. It demonstrates that high-speed fiber can succeed even in the most challenging locations, setting a blueprint for future rural broadband expansion.”
Residential customers of the service can expect to pay from £34.99 per month (discounted to £29.99) for an unlimited 100Mbps (symmetric) service on a 24-month term, which rises up to £89.99 (discounted to £54.99) for their top 2Gbps tier! Various phone, pay TV and mesh WiFi solutions can also be added at an extra cost.
The local village deployment features Adtran’s 631 ONTs for connectivity, along with 8733 Wi-Fi 7 residential gateways that provide whole-home coverage. HB also harnesses Adtran’s AI-driven insights from Mosaic One, which allows them to remotely monitor and optimize network performance, reducing costly truck rolls.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Lothian Broadband services are far more expensive than Openreach’s network, and I can imagine a lot of customers in the North of Scotland would only be taking their low speed packages [100mbps symmetric] if it was the only provider offering fast internet services, as £90/month for 900mbps symmetric is just price gouging! They should use PIA rather than building their entire network separately from Openreach tbh.
I would believe it when I see it is. My experience with Lothian so far has been consistent with the build coming in six months whenever you ask.
The installs on the Black Isle have been slow and poor experience from those I’ve asked.
Currently building in Thurso
That claim of only 2.8mbit in the village before is rubbish. My parents live in Halkirk and have done for over 10 years. They’ve had FTTC from Openreach in the village for well over 8 years at this point. I know my parents house which is quite far from the cab still managed over 30mbit.
They’ve signed up and have HB now and even won their raffle they do when they enter a new town or village so have the top tier 2Gbit for free for 2 years.