super fast broadband

[Mr P Cannop]

just been speaking to the bt man here in thurso he said thurso will be getting fast speed broadband in feb

[peedie man]

same in wick they have been busy all over town

[Kodiak]

Just seen them threading cable in Provest Cormack Road, I am keeping my fingers crossed for Super Fast Broadband in the New Year.

[scorrie]

The Openreach website has a roll-out list which shows Wick and Thurso as estimated for Upgrade in March 2015.

[Cobra]

I have seen loads of fibre being put in, and apparently the new cabinets have been popping up too. Great to see! I too saw that Openreach have Thurso scheduled for activation around March, but I'm hoping that it will come sooner. After all, if the service is there, why wouldn't the broadband companies want to start getting the extra cash?

Here's hoping that it will arrive in February!

[donss]

Super Slow Broadband here in Canisbay.... :-/

[Gronnuck]

If it comes as far as Scarfskerry it'll be so we can track our flying pigs

[Kirdon]

Fibre to cabinet coming to all exchanges including Canisbay and Scarfskerry.

[Bill Fernie]

I attended a Digital Communities Seminar on Friday and was directed by one speaker to www.digitalscotland.org where you can find out details of the where and when for the new services.

Once the set up is enabled you will have to contact your broadband supplier to sign up to the relevant package that you want and no doubt check out what company is offering the best deal.

It seems that some people may be thinking that one day they will just switch on and things will be faster and have not thought about the charges. I brought this up with the speaker and he agreed they were finding that it was not well known that there may be charges for the improved services.

Highlands and Islands coverage is expected to be 84% by the end of 2016.

National coverage is expected to be 95% by the end of 2017.

They did agree that the last places not to have coverage are likely to be in the more remote rural areas of Scotland.

There were several speaks including one from Community Broadband Scotland who are trying to assist with community broadband schemes in the more remote areas.

An interesting project is underway for David MacBrayne Limited who run all the ferries on the west coast to the islands. They are installing masts and putting in all the infrastructure to enable broadband on ferries and at ports where they operate. This will improve their own internal communications and make a better service for passengers both for booking tickets and for broadband access. Thier current systems are amazingly antiquated so this will be a huge leap forward.

Another spoke on the topic of community owned masts for future Mobile and Broadband services to improve coverage in the NOT spots.

There are many improvements underway across Scotland and especially in the Highlands and for some it is only months away.

I hope to be able to add some updates from time to time from a newsletter issued by Digital Highland.

[Kenn]

Grief Bill are we not paying over the odds to BT already?
Any further charges smacks to me of profiteering.

[cazmanian_minx]

See, I'd be happy to pay more for a fast fibre-optic connection and the cable was laid along the main road at the end of the village last month - however, according to the digitalscotland website Bill linked to, there are no plans to hook us up to it, which is galling! Apparently Melvich is going to be switched on in the latter half of next year (according to the most recent committee meeting minutes), so hopefully Armadale might get done at the same time.

[gerry4]

looks like my area will be 2nd half of next year.
Do they just have to put new cabinets into the exchange or do they also have to put new cables to each house?

[gunnlass]

Not to Lyth though, you would think with Norscot and Subsea on this exchange that we would be somewhere on it.

[Kirdon]

I was told every exchange was getting it, even lyth, but I may have picked it up wrong. I believe the "cable" eveyone is seeing installed is actually "duct" which is just a pipe for protection.