7 more exchanges to be Broadband upgraded by March

It’s no surprise that, because of high broadband take-up, a number of telephone exchanges in rural areas of Scotland have not been able to take any new broadband users for some time because of capacity constraints.

The government announced in September 2009 that it was working to agree an upgrade programme which would identify and prioritise the areas most in need.

In December it announced that 71 exchanges across rural Scotland would be upgraded.

It has now announced the addition of a further 7 exchanges to the programme, bringing the total to 79. These additions are listed below and one is in Argyll – Colintraive.

While this is good news, it is of the ‘better than nothing’ kind of prospect.  The planned upgrading will see more people with access to download speeds of 512 kbps.

Much of Scotland’s Broadband infrastructure is less than capable of meeting today’s needs. Download speeds of 512 kbps look pretty archaic. Investment has not been made in the past and the availability of funding to support it now is hard to envisage, thanks to our unfettered banks.

Enterprise Minister, Jim Mather, Argyll’s MSP, is glad to hear the announcement from BT that the first 8 of these 71 are due to be completed in March 2010. He says: ‘This will see more households and businesses across rural Scotland woth access to improvements in broadband availability.

‘I know that there is very real frustration in some rural areas where households and businesses have been unable to obtain a satisfactory broadband service.

‘We want to see as many people as possible benefit from broadband –particularly rural businesses – and that is why we have, with BT, identified  the first eight exchanges to be upgraded.

‘I am confident that many people in these communities will benefit greatly from this initiative.’

The next  8 exchanges to be upgraded – and their anticipated upgrade dates, are:

• 07/05/2010: Lochaber – Kinlocheil
• 07/05/2010: Skye & Wester Ross – Applecross
• 03/09/2010: Skye & Wester Ross – Glenelg
• 28/05/2010: Argyll & Bute – Colintraive
• 11/06/2010: Moray – Orton
• 27/08/2010: Caithness & Sutherland – Drumbeg
• 11/06/2010: Scottish Borders – Whitsome