Moray sees highest percentage swing in fibre broadband coverage in Scotland
10th November 2016
In the past three years the area has seen the largest percentage shift in fibre broadband coverage of any Scottish local authority area.
The first fibre broadband was launched by BT in Elgin in November 2013. It was quickly followed by the start of the £146m Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband project, which announced the first publicly funded fibre cabinet in Buckie in February 2014.
Today, when combined with BT's commercial roll-out, around 40,500 Moray homes and businesses are part of the network.
The project has delivered access to superfast fibre broadband to more than 20 Moray towns and villages.
This week, Moray MP Angus Robertson and Stuart Robertson director of digital at HIE, which is leading the partnership roll-out in the region, were in Elgin to mark the milestone. They visited a business which is using fibre broadband and digital technology to help it provide top class customer service.
Construction, Farm and Groundcare Company, Ravenhill, is based at Moycroft Industrial Estate. The firm, which gets fibre broadband from a nearby project cabinet, has seen its connectivity increase from less than 8 Mbps download speed to around 40Mbps.
"Better connectivity is one part of the story; what is equally important is what we do with it," HIE's Stuart Robertson commented. "Ravenhill has an impressive multi-site set up and technology is an important part of the services they offer. There’s also a business benefit in streamlining their work across sites in Moray, Highlands, Grampian, Herefordshire and Shropshire. Recently, with the help of local DigitalBoost workshops, they have been looking at social media and different ways to boost their online presence."
Stewart Davidson, After Sales Director at Ravenhill, said: “We are reliant on the internet now to keep our business running. We deal with most of our suppliers through the internet or mobile apps and having a fast internet speed is vital to productivity.
Technology also has a vital part in traditional industries like farming today. The machinery is highly specialised and one of the services we offer at Ravenhill is our very own GPS system called Ravenhill Connect. This allows the machinery to be controlled by satellites to an accuracy level of 2.5cm, maximising efficiency. We put customer care and service at the heart of our business and pride ourselves in providing the very latest technologies.“
Latest figures from independent website ThinkBroadband indicate that almost 80% of Moray premises can access superfast speeds of more than 24 Mbps if they order a fibre service.
MP Angus Robertson, said: “Moray’s towns and villages are better connected than ever before. As well as the new fibre broadband available from cabinets, the network also opens up more opportunities. Companies working here, or looking to locate here, can access high speed business connections more easily, and mobile operators working on improving our 4G connectivity have easier access to backhaul. There have been huge improvement but there remains more to do with the Scottish Government committed to 100% broadband coverage. I will continue to work to ensure we get the most from this new network, particularly looking at how we reach further and go faster in the coming years.”
Latest infrastructure info
There are 106 new fibre cabinets live across the area which, when added to the commercial roll-out, are reaching around 90% of premises so far.
Areas live: Aberlour, Alves, Brodie, Buckie, Carron, Clochan, Cullen, Dallas, Dufftown, Elgin, Findhorn, Fochabers, Forres, Garmouth (Speybay), Hopeman, Keith, Kingston (Speybay), Kinloss (Findhorn), Lhanbryde, Longmorn, Lossiemouth, Rothes, Rothiemay, Tomintoul.
Areas under way: Ballindalloch, Glenlivet and Mulben.
The project is funded by the Digital Scotland partnership. It comprises the Scottish Government, the UK Government through Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and BT which secured the contract to deliver the roll-out on the ground.
Fibre broadband offers fast and reliable broadband connections at speeds of up to 80Mbps (*the speed available depends on the distance from the fibre cabinet) and there are many suppliers in the marketplace to choose from. It enables multiple users to connect to the internet at high speeds and get better access to online services as well as faster uploads and downloads.
Where available customers must order, existing broadband is a separate service and no one is upgraded automatically.
Customers can check availability here.
http://www.hie.co.uk/regional-information/digital-highlands-and-islands/can-i-get-it.html?utm_source=Where%20and%20When&utm_medium=Can%20I%20Get&utm_campaign=301
