Letter to the "P&J" on Broadband
Dear Sirs
Danny Alexander MP is doing Highland businesses no favours with his depressing and negative comments regarding the rollout of superfast broadband, as highlighted in the Press & Journal last week ("Prime Minister Attacked over Fast Broadband", 21 January 2010).
Access to reliable, high-speed broadband services is vital to the development of the rural economy and there is no doubt that the current service options available in many parts of the Highlands are woefully inadequate.
However, Mr Alexander’s comments that "some areas will never have access to the next generation of this technology" is either political point scoring or ignorance of the technology situation. Or both.
Most commentators – when talking about "Next Generation Broadband" in rural areas – are referring to a BT provided service, which is ultimately reliant on a connection to a home or business over a traditional copper telephone line.
No matter how much BT invest in upgrading their exchanges, such connectivity will continue to offer a poor level of provision to rural communities as the internet speed available decreases rapidly over long telephone lines. In contrast, a combination of fibre-backbone and local wireless technology can offer superb broadband capability to many rural communities.
Is Mr Alexander aware of the success of such projects in Finland?
Or of the new strategy in Sweden? Fibre-connected local wireless solutions are improving all the time and offer great potential for rural broadband.
There will always be some locations which will be hard to reach, regardless of what technology options are chosen.
But some positive, innovative thinking, backed up with some solid government investment will deliver solutions to meet the needs of most communities.
What we must do is ensure that the investment which will be made available through the governments Digital Britain Strategy and the £1bn Next Generation Fund is directed to the most effective technology solutions for different parts of the UK, rather than a "one size fits all " approach.
Peter Peacock MSP has already done considerable work on this topic .
Next month, I hope to meet with Stephen Timms, the UK minister responsible for these matters, to discuss the issue and to make sure he understands its importance to the Highland economy.
Peter and I will continue to look at ways in which the investment which will shortly become available can be used to best advantage.
That seems to me to be a rather more positive approach than writing off the possibilities and leaving
Mike Robb
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