Digital
The life of Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB)
September 10, 2020 by Stewart Hamilton 8 Comments | Category Digital Scotland, Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband
Blog by Fiona Smith, Head of Communications, Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband.
“Fiona, how can you not know where Dumfries and Galloway is!?” That is what my geography teacher asked in sheer disbelief in the early 90s.
That memory came back to me, as I organised what will be one of the last photo calls and events of the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme. Featuring Paul Wheelhouse MSP, Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands in a small hamlet in none other than Dumfries and Galloway!
I’m immensely proud to have been part of the DSSB team, which sits within the Scottish Government’s, Digital Directorate. When the £463 million DSSB programme first started deployment back in 2014, only around 66% of Scotland was set to have access and as little as 25% in many of our rural areas likely to get fibre broadband. Today 97.3% can connect to a fibre based broadband service and the programme has connected over 950,000 homes and businesses, and laid enough cable to go to the South Pole. Many of these properties are in rural areas that otherwise would not have had fibre broadband had it not been for our programme.
As Head of Communications on the DSSB programme one of my main roles has been to get the message out to the public in the press, media and social media that fibre broadband is available to them, as well as liaising with colleagues in the Demand Stimulation team to encourage take-up. Thanks to the hard work of the communication and demand stimulation team, take-up now sits at over 67%.
Over the last six and half years, the programme has deployed across Scotland and we’ve had countless photo calls and attended a wide variety of different events. We’ve deployed as far north as North Roe in Shetland and as far south as Paxton in the Scottish Borders. I’ve got a creative mind, and a certain determination, and always liked to ensure we let everyone locally know that they can get fibre broadband and how to sign up and enjoy the benefits it brings.
To help celebrate cabinets going live we’ve had local school children, businesses, authors, AC/DC tribute bands, ‘Rob Roy’, RNLI Lifeboat crews, farmers, and even members of the Scotland rugby team unveil cabinets. There’s been various hand-made signs (my garden table is now marked for eternity) celebrating a variety of milestones and golden balloons as well.
Another memorable photo call that springs to mind was turning up to a photo call in a Lanarkshire town to find the local youths had ‘tagged’ the cabinet with some explicit graffiti not suitable for family viewing (that launch was hastily moved!).
The programme, one of the largest infrastructure programmes in Europe, has also picked up a number of prestige awards including category nominations in the European Broadband Awards and the Civil Services Awards.
Over the next few months, the DSSB programme will be drawing to an official close having reached 97.3 % fibre coverage. The £600M, R100 programme will be picking up the very remote and rural areas that DSSB didn’t manage to get to and ensure through time that everyone in Scotland has access to a superfast service.
Thankfully due to my time on the programme, my knowledge of Scottish towns and villages has improved since my schools days – my old geography teacher would be most impressed!
Find out more about getting connected at: www.scotlandsuperfast.com
Tags: broadband, digital, scotland, superfast
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The DSSB claims for fibre broadband are deeply disingenuous: they include FTTC-based connections with a copper ‘last mile’, something which is in no way future proof. By allowing BT to cynically ‘sweat’ existing infrastructure whilst taking large sums of public money, the government has simply ensured that it already needs to be done all over again as Scotland falls ever further behind the service curve. What an astonishingly wasted opportunity, driven by a determination to throw money at an uninterested incumbent, rather than look at how to develop the sort of transformative long-term infrastructure that Scotland so deserves needs.
Thanks for your comments. Someone from the Digital Connectivity team will be in touch with you shortly.
bill Just read about poor devils only getting 3mb. When we were with bt for eight years we started out at 300kb which slowly reduced over the years to as low as 26kb so to download the average film on low resolution was taking over 3 entire days of downloading and streaming is a complete non starter. we are now paying £50 a month (lunar) for a satelite service which is at best patchy and non existant at times .Was offered vouchers two years ago but no-one wanted to know so had to stump up total amount, As for 4 or 5 g we have no signal here not even a flicker so have to travel 3 miles to get any signal when landlines are down so have been told to bundle wife into car if sh has another heart attack as it will save time
I am a full-time freelance telephone engineer, i test broadband speeds where ever i go from the centre of Edinburgh to the Scottish borders, My findings are that 99% of anything that comes via copper to the old master socket is shockingly slow internet. I use RRSONIC SPEED TEST. I have now started installing 4G wifi routers to most of my customers and all of them are delighted. One customer in Whittingham outside Haddington was getting 3mbps horrific speed for a bill of £67 per month. I don a quick speed test and found i was getting 76mbps from the locat 4G mast. So i installed 2x RRSONIC 4G antennas and a new 4G router. Then i put in some access points round his house to give a whopping 70mbps in nearly every room of the house wire free.
The point i am making is there could be an alternative to long contracts and pathetic speeds. check out the 4g speed in your area, also check with different networks so do a speed test with say EE, then Vodophone, GifGaf ect . This will give you a complete over view of what might be available in your area. If you phone gets double or treble the speed of your existing slow internet this will be some thing you can now look towards asap. even if your phone gets one bar of signal just remember the 4G antenna will go on your roof somewhere to collect the best signal. Hope this all makes sense glad to help you all if you have any questions. Lee
Hi Ian,
Sorry to hear that. I can’t go into your case on this forum, but if you wish to fill in the enquiries form (located at the bottom left of the site – https://www.scotlandsuperfast.com/) the enquiries team can assist you.
Thanks
Fiona
I am less than 800m from fibre, fibre runs 1 m away from the cabinet I am connected to, yet it is copper to my cabinet and copper to my home. I am hardly that rural, less than 3 miles from Elgin. All I have had for the last 10 years, is broken promises, time and time again. Just move the targets, that solves the problem!!!.The latest voucher is only for set up costs. The monthly running cost is beyond many, just too expensive. Very poor show SNP
Hi Tom,
By the nature of the remoteness and ruggedness of the NC500 some areas don’t have faster broadband yet.
The Scottish Government are committed to changing that, thanks to the R100 scheme:- https://www.scotlandsuperfast.com/how-can-i-get-it/superfast-access-for-all/
For remote areas that may be through the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme which gives people up to £5000 towards a voucher:- https://www.scotlandsuperfast.com/how-can-i-get-it/voucher-scheme/
Thanks
Fiona
Am just back from the NC500….Internet was like Hens teeth. These puff articles serve no purpose.