Superfast broadband rollout to miss rural Scottish communities

Businesses based in rural Scottish communities are likely to be left waiting for superfast broadband to arrive in their area after the latest upgrade plans were revealed.

Companies located in the far north of Scotland have been waiting for improved business broadband infrastructure for many years, with little progress made despite government pledges.

Julia Campbell, local development officer for the Coigach Community Development Company, explained that it seems unlikely the Scottish Highlands will be receiving superfast speeds any time soon.

Speaking to Cable.co.uk, she stated that a community broadband network could be an option, although it is likely this would be difficult to get up and running.

Ms Campbell added: "If we're going to get people coming or staying here, broadband is a real maker or breaker. I work from home a lot. My house is about three miles from the exchange and I get about 0.5Mbps."

Small businesses in rural communities rely heavily on the internet to run their companies and being left without superfast internet speeds could make it harder to compete with rival firms in the long run.

Ms Campbell said: "We're always trying to encourage investment in this area and we meet people who would quite like to come and live here. More and more people work from home, and can set up little businesses and work remotely. There are international companies employing people dotted all over the place, but that needs infrastructure."

Local resident James Pirie, who lives and works in the Scottish Highlands, pledged not to give up trying to get superfast broadband in rural communities in the north of Great Britain.

He said: "I happen to know there's a fibre cable coming up the west coast right now. It's going to come to within 11 miles of Lochinver, and then it's going to turn right. It's completely bypassing us."

Businesses looking to move services into the cloud should evaluate the performance of their existing network and consider setting up a leased line or MPLS network.