Scotland's Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is
considering spending up to £480m to provide fibre-based broadband
connections to premises throughout the region.
A detailed report from market analyst Analysi Mason found only
six of the 384 exchanges in the region were unbundled to provide
ADSL2+ services (up to 24Mbps), but they covered about 20% of
premises.
Most phone lines could provide up to 8Mbps. But there were 80
exchanges covering 3% of premises that could use
Exchange Activate technology to provide broadband at 0.5Mbps
with a limited number of active users at any time.
"In the Highlands and Islands, as with most rural areas, it is
more challenging to put forward a convincing case for widespread
telecoms connectivity provided by the private sector," the analyst
said.
It estimated it would cost around £81m to deploy fibre to the
cabinet (FTTC) right across the Highlands and Islands, and £480m to
deliver fibre connectivity directly to the region's households and
businesses.
HIE director of regional competitiveness Alex Paterson said,
"Technology is so important to our economy that it underpins almost
everything HIE is trying to achieve. There has been considerable
public sector funding put into overcoming the challenges of
connecting services, businesses and individuals in the Highlands
and Islands.
"The role of the internet and mobile technology is increasingly
pivotal in everything from education, to supporting health care
services, to opening up new markets to business, and nowhere are
the benefits felt more keenly than in remote and rural areas."
Paterson said broadband take-up was higher in the area than for
Scotland or the UK. "The area has already had to think innovatively
to tackle the issues surrounding connectivity and our next step,
given the additional costs in rural areas, is to provide strong
business and social arguments as to why we should be a priority for
next generation access (NGA)," he said.
NGA involves replacing some or all of the current copper phone
line and fibre optic cables to offer significantly higher broadband
speeds, typically faster than 40Mbps.
The report said roll-out of NGA could be commercially viable for
around 40% of Highlands and Islands premises because costs would be
in line with those anticipated for other UK roll-outs. However,
this left a funding gap which HIE wished to close.
Paterson said HIE was committed to ensuring that the region
attracted funding to build NGA broadband coverage. "It will be key
to our ambition to be one of the most competitive regions in the
world," he said.