A response from BT
A response from a Digital Scotland partnership spokesman to our story on Wednesday: Scepticism over BT’s ‘superfast’ broadband rollout (SN, 14/10/15).
The Highlands and Islands NGA project is by far the most challenging fibre-based broadband project BT has undertaken anywhere in the UK.
In order to take next generation broadband into this vast geography we’ve built a fibre backbone network using more than 800km of new fibre on land and around 400km of fibre optic subsea cables over 20 crossings to remote islands.
It’s a fibre deployment on an unprecedented scale within the UK. The fibre backbone is a game changer in terms of reaching remote communities and islands.
To set the record straight, we have never said people can order above 24Mb or even 30Mb fibre broadband. We’ve always said we’re delivering fibre broadband that will provide a range of speeds with the vast majority able to see a substantial increase in their broadband speed, should they opt to move to Fibre broadband.
Our priority is to maximise the speeds available using our existing technology. I think it is absolutely, clear speeds are determined by proximity to the cabinet.
Yes, we did unfortunately have some constraints on the network during some peak periods due to the positive spike in take up on Shetland.
A further recent upgrade has been completed which provides additional capacity to handle broadband traffic. All tests suggest this is working effectively now, but we will continue to monitor the situation.
If anyone is still experiencing problems then they should report them to their service providers so that they can investigate them using the agreed industry procedures.
BT Scotland
www.bt.com/btscotland
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