News / Broadband no longer a luxury
THE FEDERATION of Small Businesses and Shetland MSP Tavish Scott are calling on governments to do more to connect those living in the remoter parts of the highlands and islands to high speed broadband.
The FSB wants the UK government to ensure all businesses receive a minimum speed of 10Mbps under a new universal service obligation.
The organisation’s highlands and islands business development manager David Richardson said: “Expensive to install it may be, but broadband is no longer a luxury but a necessity.
“It is essential to the survival of many remote highlands and islands communities seeking to attract new businesses and families and to hold onto their young people.
“Faster broadband, coupled with a reasonably priced delivery service – another can of worms! – can enable Shetland to sell to the world in ways never imagined 20 years ago.”
Meanwhile the Scottish Parliament heard on Wednesday how crofters had to drive to Lerwick to fill in crucial subsidy forms online because of slow broadband speeds at home.
Scott called on agriculture minister Richard Lochhead to “push investment” on rolling out fast internet connections to rural areas with little or no broadband connectivity.
“The new Single Application Form was a very difficult form to complete. Doing it online was nearly impossible unless a crofter had very good superfast broadband. Yet many croft houses across Shetland have poor, if any, broadband.
“So filling in a government form online means a drive to Lerwick. It cannot be fair to insist that crofters complete forms online if they do not have broadband.
“But instead of concentrating on population centres such as Inverness, the government must push investment to the areas where houses have slow or no broadband. That would help crofters and farmers across Shetland.”
Speaking in parliament, Lochhead said the government had already invested £9 million to tackle those hardest to reach areas.
“As Tavish Scott is aware, there was enormous frustration in Scotland’s rural communities for many years over the lack of progress in broadband availability,” he told MSPs.
“The substantial investment that has been made available over the past couple of years, which is making a huge difference to mainland and island communities, is therefore very welcome.
“That is why we also set up the specific funds in community broadband Scotland to target the harder-to-reach areas that would not benefit directly from the main investments.
“We are working hard with the new broadband scheme, which is worth £9 million, as well as the existing community broadband scheme, to allow bespoke solutions to be found in our rural and island communities.”
In October, around 4,000 households in Lerwick, Quarff and Sumburgh were the first in Shetland to be connected to broadband speeds of up to 80 Mbps, part of a £146 million investment which will eventually reach around 85 per cent of households across the Highlands and Islands and 75 per cent in Shetland.
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