Local MP John Lamont is calling for the Scottish and UK Governments to look more closely at fixed wireless broadband following visits to a number of local providers.
Rural parts of the Scottish Borders have some of the worst broadband connections in the whole of Scotland. In East Berwickshire in particular the majority of properties receive a connection below 10 Mb/s, which is the speed which Ofcom says is necessary for an average family.
Superfast broadband is usually delivered via fixed line infrastructure with either a copper or fibre cable connecting properties to fibre enabled cabinets. For rural properties further away from cabinets, speed is lost by connecting via a coper cable and connections via fibre cables are often prohibitively expensive.
Fixed wireless technology still connects to a fibre enable cabinet, but then uses small radio antenna attached to buildings to provide broadband access via a wireless link. In the Borders, fixed wireless can provide speeds of between 30 Mb/s to 100 Mb/s at a fraction of the cost of fixed line infrastructure.
John has recently met with two companies who offer wireless broadband in East Berwickshire, BorderLink and Briskona Ltd to see what they can offer hard to reach customers.
John visited Scotland Shop near Duns to hear about how BorderLink had transformed their business and also met with Briskona Ltd who are providing free broadband to Gavinton Village Hall and the Whitsome Ark.
John is now calling on the UK and Scottish Governments to look closely at working with local fixed wireless providers rather than focussing just on national providers like BT.
Following the visits, John Lamont MP said: “It was great to pay a visit to both Borderlink and Briskona to see what they are doing to help connect communities in the Borders.
“The Borders continues to suffer from poor broadband infrastructure with the likes of BT focusing on connecting the easier to reach towns.
“This option has the potential to quickly connect hard to reach properties at a fraction of the cost. Because technology is developing all the time, the speeds and reliability of fixed wireless is rapidly improving.
“There are a number of companies in the Borders who are offering a low-cost solution for hard to reach areas. If these local companies had been given just a tiny fraction of the money that BT has received, I think we’d have much better connectivity in rural parts of the Scottish Borders.
“If we are going to get anywhere near 100% coverage, we need to look beyond a national model and consider things like fixed wireless technology.”