With CS Rene Descartes having now completed her cable laying across Loch Fyne between Otter Ferry and Achnaba, the ongoing work to lay down subsea fibreoptic cable around coastal Scotland, including Argyll, is very much to be welcomed.
The caveat is that this is not the end of the story of our rural access to contemporary connectivity, which will not follow for a few years.
This began with a tip-off that although Islay and Jura had been ringed with fibreoptic cable, there was no money to complete the operation with the installation of the cabinets which deliver the connectivity to the users.
Working through Campbell Cameron at the Argyll branch of Community Broadband Scotland, who made it clear that ‘Community Broadband Scotland have engaged with communities on both islands with a view to complementing the Digital Scotland Superfast Fibre Broadband BT /HIE roll out program by including them in the consultation area for the Argyll Isles Community Broadband network’.
While the tip-off we had been given was not fully accurate, it led to the official description of the situation which it is important for residents and businesses in Argyll and the Isles to know.
BT’s account of the situation
Through Campbell Cameron we then made contact with Mitchell Reid of BT who told us that ‘BT, in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise. is responsible for the laying of the fibre optic cables – in terms of specific resources this will appropriate resources assigned by BT.’
In relaying our concerns to Mitchell Reid, Campbell said: ‘Can you confirm/correct that there was no money left to complete the job and the system cannot be used because no cabinets were bought and installed to connect folk to it?’
Mr Reid replied to us that: ‘ That is not strictly true – BT are committed in partnership with HIE to deliver fibre broadband as far and as wide as we can technically and financially deploy, given the constraints we are working to.
‘Our current expectations are that we will, in collaboration with BT’s commercial programme, deliver up to 84% fibre coverage across the H&I region by the end of 2016. This is a significant step forward, which will ultimately allow more than 200K homes and businesses to have access to fibre services, but that is not the end and we have more to do. The Scottish [Ed: Government] have published plans at ww.digitalscotland.org that outline our provisional deployment plans.
‘In relation to Islay – we anticipate that the majority of homes and businesses will have access to Fibre during 2016. We have two exchanges, Port Askaig and Portnahaven, which are still under evaluation, due to technology constraints, but we are proactively reviewing plans for all exchanges and hope to expand coverage wider across the Island communities over the life of the programme.
‘With regards to Jura –this Island is still shown as under evaluation, like the two examples above. We continue to review the situation for this Island and as outlined to the Jura Community Council in January, we anticipate providing further updates regarding Jura later in the year.
‘It is not simply a question of buying cabinets to connect, this is a complex network that requires to be created. We recognise the importance of maximising coverage to the island communities where physically possible.
‘We have completed backbone work on Jura, given that south Jura connects the mainland points of Campbeltown, Lochgilphead and Port Ellen together creating a resilient fibre ring via the most cost effective subsea and land-based route possible.
‘These locations are the key distribution points covering the area, and without these connectivity would not be possible.
‘Current technology constraints stop us being able to roll out services initially to the island.
‘With reference to the Scottish Government website – Exchange areas shown as “Under evaluation” simply means that we have not published plans for any exchange within this category. This does not necessarily mean that no rollout will occur, but we want to be absolutely sure we can deliver technically & financially before committing. Plans will be updated throughout the life of the Programme.
‘We are continually looking at new technology development which will provide a cost effective solution for as much of Jura and other areas in a similar position as is possible – over the next 12 months, some new advancements in technology are anticipated which we hope to use in our deployment to extend the reach further
‘Within the H&I Programme, a £2.5m Innovation Fund has been set up to deliver new and innovative solutions once the fibre backbone has been deployed to extend the reach further within this region. Its purpose is to find new ways of providing commercial broadband solutions (fixed or wireless) so that we can push coverage beyond the 84%. The initial strengthening of the network will help us to extend the reach of fibre broadband closer to the most remote places in Scotland.’
Additional questions
For Argyll then asked Mitchell Reid some further questions, saying: ‘Many thanks for this, Mitchell.
Cost is clearly a factor – and we are not saying that it should not be – but the question is the nature of the gap between what remote communities are being ‘sold’ as being done for them and the nature of the reality.
The length of the probable time lapse is likely to be beyond 2016 – already a two year gap. The longer it is, the more ridiculous it will seem to those waiting for the connectivity that will determine the sustainability of their communities.
Expectations falsely raised and then dumped are always trouble – and we know that this is not down to BT.
Our technical director’s analysis is:
‘As far as I am aware, laying fibre optic subsea is the best solution. The difficulty I think here is not that f/o broadband can’t be delivered, but is around the cost of (a) connecting to the cabinet and then (b) distributing it to the homes.
‘My feeling is that the problem is actually making an island spur that is affordable for HIE and profitable for BT from a cable which is going to Campbeltown [or wherever]. So the cable has been laid and is functioning as a route to deliver bb further afield, but the island isn’t yet benefiting.
‘The new technology is probably either a robust point-to-point wifi solution or a new way of delivering f/o speeds to homes down copper or getting f/o to the home without incurring the £50 per metre cost.’
We would like to give you the opportunity to comment on that and I look forward to hearing from you.
We asked a series of additional questions:
- Is it the case that the problem actually lies in the area of affordability with regard to connecting houses on Jura and Islay rather than access to bandwidth?
- Is the technology that is being developed in the next year bridging the gap between exchange and household – and/or getting connectivity out beyond the limits of ADSL.
- Is there going to be any fibre to home? and/or replacement of installed copper on ISlay and Jura?
- What technologies are likely to be used to connect the most remote households?
These are given which are given below with Mr Reid’s prompt responses:
The Q&As
Q: Is it the case that the problem actually lies in the area of affordability with regard to connecting houses on Jura and Islay rather than access to bandwidth?
A: ‘No, this is not the case.’
Q: Is the technology that is being developed in the next year bridging the gap between exchange and household – and/or getting connectivity out beyond the limits of ADSL
A: ‘We already have the technology to reach further into communities with fibre v traditional ADSL. ADSL has its own limitations on speed, given it is based on how far a home or business is from an exchange. Fibre is no longer driven from the exchange necessarily – ie the installation of cabinets (FTTC) or Fibre to the premises nodes (FTTP) bring fibre closer to the home or business. It is about the distance from the structure and not the exchange that is the key point.’
Q: Is there going to be any fibre to home? and/or replacement of installed copper on ISlay and Jura?
A: The requirement is to deploy fibre as far as and wide as we can – it is too early to comment at this stage about which technology deployment within Islay will be required given the deployment plans are for 2016 and we will not complete surveys until at least 2015. As stated, Jura remains under evaluation pending further reviews being completed and we aim to provide a further update on this later this year.
Q: What technologies are likely to be used to connect the most remote households?
A: ‘BT will deploy widespread fibre to the cabinet, which offers Wholesale broadband speeds of up to 80Mbps. Engineers will also lay some Fibre to the Premises, which offers speeds of up to 300Mbps. Further details about how rollout is completed can be found in a helpful video here.’
‘Further to our e-mail on Tuesday and to reiterate: We are continually looking at new technology development which will provide a cost effective solution for as much of Jura and other areas in a similar position as is possible – over the next 12 months some new advancements in technology are anticipated which we hope to use in our deployment to extend the reach further.
Within the H&I Programme, a £2.5m Innovation Fund has been set up to deliver new and innovative solutions once the fibre backbone has been deployed to extend the reach further within this region. Its purpose is to find new ways of providing commercial broadband solutions (fixed or wireless) so that we can push coverage beyond the 84%. The initial strengthening of the network will help us to extend the reach of fibre broadband closer to the most remote places in Scotland.
Q: Our technical director’s analysis is: ‘As far as I am aware, laying fibre optic subsea is the best solution. The difficulty I think here is not that f/o broadband can’t be delivered, but is around the cost of (a) connecting to the cabinet and then (b) distributing it to the homes.
‘My feeling is that the problem is actually making an island spur that is affordable for HIE and profitable for BT from a cable which is going to Campbeltown [or wherever]. So the cable has been laid and is functioning as a route to deliver bb further afield, but the island isn’t yet benefiting.
‘The new technology is probably either a robust point-to-point wifi solution or a new way of delivering f/o speeds to homes down copper or getting f/o to the home without incurring the £50 per metre cost.’
A: ‘Work on laying the 20 new submarine cables will begin next month and continue through to October as it’s a massive and complex engineering task. It’s too early to comment at this stage about which technology deployment within Islay will be required given the deployment plans are for 2016 and we will not complete surveys until at least 2015. Jura remains under evaluation and we will provide a further update later this year.’
