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£300m Highlands and Islands Superfast Broadband Rollout to Begin in 2013

Posted: 17th Jan, 2012 By: MarkJ
scotland uk regions mapfibre_optic_broadband_internet_cable.jpgThe Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), which is the Scottish Government's economic and community development agency for north and western Scotland (UK), has confirmed that the sometimes controversial work to rollout a new superfast broadband network in the region will finally start in 2013.

As we reported last year (here), BT was left as the only serious bidder in HIE's public tender process after Cable and Wireless (C&W), Fujitsu and Commendium all ultimately dropped out over issues such as a lack of public money being invested. At the time Fujitsu told us that, "the sums simply did not stack up."

Naturally BT won the contract due to being the only operator left. The HIE now anticipates that its total costs are likely to fall somewhere between £200m and £300m (combined private and public sector investment). The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Scottish Government, via some Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office funding, will contribute.

Andrea Rutherford, HIE's Senior Development Manager, said:

"This is a highly ambitious initiative, and the largest rural broadband project in the UK. It requires a technically proficient commercial partner to invest significantly in a superfast broadband infrastructure which will benefit businesses and communities across the Highlands and Islands.

We are committed to providing best value for the public purse and to achieve this are working closely with the Scottish Government, BDUK, local partners and other superfast broadband projects.

Broadband offers huge opportunities to rural areas in particular and we are determined to ensure that communities and businesses well beyond our main centres of population are able to benefit from access to high quality services."

The Highlands and Islands region claims to be one of the largest rural areas in the UK and, as Thinkbroadband reminds us, has always appeared to require substantial investment in order to deliver upon even the most basic of broadband services (e.g. the £70m Pathfinder North project).

At this stage any detailed costs and timescales, for each phase of the project, will still be the subject of negotiation with BT. It's "anticipated" that the first contracts will be agreed and signed by August 2012, which is likely to see a mix of FTTC and FTTP related solutions being deployed.
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