The Colintraive and Glendaruel Development Trust Steering Group asked one of its members, Alan Poland, to look into the state of Broadband Provision in ColGlen as it stands now and how it will be affected in the future by ongoing developments at national level.

REPORT 

There are two main reasons why broadband service is not available to everyone who wants it.

1. The first is capacity, and this is not included in the Scottish Government`s initiative. To get Broadband each customer is connected to a dedicated piece of equipment housed in their telephone exchange. These equipments are provided in blocks or modules and are allocated on demand. When demand exceeds supply we have a capacity problem.
2. The second reason is Transmission Limits, and the Scottish Government is involved in this. All electrical signals weaken as they travel out from their source, and eventually they become too weak to support reliable service. So it is with Broadband.

HOW THE INITIATIVE AFFECTS OUR COMMUNITY

There are an unconfirmed number of people in our community who have applied for Broadband service and have been told they can`t have it because they are too far from the Telephone Exchange.

The Scottish Government is sponsoring an “OPEN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT” in order to overcome the technical problems associated with Transmission Limits.

THE PLAN

The Scottish Government knows the limits for every exchange and which properties are outwith these limits.

Four private telecom companies have been invited to submit technical solutions so that broadband will be available to all.

No decisions on technology can be made until these submissions have been received and evaluated.

It is intended that a contract will be let to the successful company in April and that “rollout” will begin in December 2008.

Although no decisions can be made on specific solutions it is expected that the following technologies will be considered :

• Satellite
• Wireless (radio)
• ADSL Backhaul

Probably the least well known of these is ADSL Backhaul. A simple explanation is that the bad bit is cut off and sustituted with a very low loss medium. A house miles from the exchange has good quality service over the existing cable, but the next house is too far away for this type of transmission to work.

A wireless link may be the answer. With the appropriate agreements a dish could be installed on or near the house with Broadband and the signal sent to the distant house or houses.

How can we influence the choice of local solutions?

At this time it would appear we can’t, but in conversation with the Policy Office I said that if a “one size fits all” approach was adopted the community would not necessarily get the “best” system, and I asked if we could make some kind of contribution to upgrade costs. I assume that the cheapest specification will normally be adopted. I was also thinking that we could run a project to raise funds and/or expertise. Any matters of this type would have to be agreed with the successful contractor.

Alan Poland, Colintraive & Glendaruel Development Trust Steering Group
2/3/08

For a strategic view on the importance of Broadband, Radio Fyneside were recently invited by Alex Salmond to make a submission to the Scottish Broadcasting Commission.

The telephone exchanges at both ends of our community are outposts from the larger population areas of Rothesay and dunoon. Colintaive has an ‘activated exchange’ which can only service a very limited number of subscriptions. Glendaruel has an ‘ADSL Max exchange’ which, although supporting more subscriptions, means that those living more than a few miles away are unlikely to obtain a reasonable internet link on the standard telephone line, yet alone broadband itself.

The Broadband Cluster Forum (BCF) was set up by the Scottish Executive to address exactly this type of situation in rural communities. A combination of technology and grant aid could furnish us all with a cheaper and higher level of connectivity.

What is required is a seperate phone line from the exchange to a central point within each area. From there a broadband signal can be transmitted to a point from whence it can be bounced on to the whole community. In Glendaruel there is the power connected TV mast above Clacheranmor. I am told a similar facility exists at Colintraive. Even those lucky few already connected would benefit from better economy and bandwidth.

We would require 20 - 30 potential subscribers in order to take advantage of available funding opportunities. If we fail to achieve this level we can still benefit from the BCF’s expertise and technical advice and seek funding elsewhere.

We need to first establish potential demand in order to check out technical feasibility, legal and structural implications and service level agreements with a broadband provider.

To further this initiative the BCF require evidence of community commitment and of social benefit. To this end we would be grateful if you would contact us here.

Michael Kaufmann

There are not many and it depends, in the first instance, how much money you want to shell out.

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If you live in Colintraive it seems you are too late. All the bandwidth available has been taken by c. 10 users.**

In Glendaruel the situation is different, only in that there haven’t been that many connections – so get ‘em while they’re hot.

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