One of the most important problems we face and a priority for me is the ongoing difficulties many of our communities face as a result of an inadequate Broadband connection. This will be a focus for my efforts until we have a service provision for every property across the constituency that provides a good connection, greater capacity and is affordable. There are many initiatives and projects from the Scottish Government creating a confusing, acronym laden, landscape of who does what, how, when and with what money. The bottom line is that the Scottish Government is responsible for the programmes that will deliver the overall UK strategy. With people already moving out because they cannot run a business or study effectively we really are at a tipping point for many communities in rural Stirlingshire.
BDUK is the UK Govt programme providing the overall strategy & funding to English Local Authorities and the Devolved administrations. DSSB (Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband) is the Scottish Governments current programme designed to deliver, under this strategy, connectivity to 95% of premises by March 2018. This is through a contract with BT costing 412million split into two areas; Highlands & Islands and ‘Rest of Scotland’. The project started in 2013 with the initial aim of 85% coverage by 2015 and now working towards the March 2018 target of 95%. The funding is from a combination of UK & Scottish Governments, BT, Local Authorities, and the EU. Premises under the DSSB programme are being enabled using FTTC (Fibre to Cabinet) technology. This lays fibre optic cable as far as a Cabinet and the final distance to the property utilises the existing copper wires. This method will provide speeds, theoretically, up to 80mbps while FTTP (Fibre to premises) will provide the optimum speeds of between 300mbps and 1gbps and is really the only truly ‘Future proof’ solution available.
This all sounds very good, however a problem with the programme so far is that there are, sometimes significant, numbers of properties within exchange areas that have been ‘enabled’ and are left out of the programme due to distances, no cabinet availability, or being an exchange only line. This will remain the case until the second phase programme, called R100 and discussed below, is completed. However, under BDUK contract arrangements there is a clawback built in called ‘Gainshare’. Basically, when take up of the new service in any exchange area exceeds 20% an amount of money will be generated that BT will need to effectively pay back from the original funding. Across both Scottish projects this will total around £18million. An important point here is that this potential extra investment in the programme must be used under the existing DSSB project and should be utilised to add more areas under that programme beyond the stated March 2018 end date.
What about the remaining 5% of premises that are not included in the DSSB project? This includes many of our rural communities across the Stirling area. Since 2013 These are being ‘supported’ by the Community broadband Scotland organisation (CBS) operated by Highlands & Islands Enterprise. Almost all ‘solutions’ agreed by CBS are wireless or satellite. The current model will support community led broadband projects, but in the experience of projects I am aware of it has failed to deliver any useful solutions despite the best efforts of the staff. An over complex, bureaucratic process further complicated by restrictive European rules on using public money usually mean that those committed people in our communities that form and lead these projects end up walking away in frustration. There are several questions I want to see answered about this initiative as it seems clear the concept was flawed leading to a lot of time and money being wasted and many communities no further forward or, at best, ‘enabled’ using wireless or satellite. A full review of CBS has been announced by the Scottish Government, I suspect it will be quietly disbanded with only the consultants mourning its demise.
The next phase in Government programmes will be, as mentioned previously, R100 (Reaching 100%). This was announced by the Scottish Government in 2016 as the programme that will connect every property in Scotland with speeds of 30mbps or more by the end of 2021. I support this ambition however I am concerned that there will be a desire to meet this ‘challenging’, politically set target by utilising technologies that are not future proofed, raising the possibility that large parts of our rural areas will still be disadvantaged unless or until more public sector intervention is forthcoming. We must do it right, ensuring we only need to do it once. Another concern I have is what will happen to any areas already ‘supported’ by Community Broadband Scotland? Will they be excluded from the programme? This time any contracts awarded must have dealt with the problems presented by European state aid regulations that have, to date, seriously inhibited both DSSB and CBS programmes. We have been promised more details by the end of this year and I await them with keen interest but given the time these procurement exercises take I would be surprised if anything happens under these contracts until 2019.
As well as these initiatives, there has also been Business voucher support schemes, now ended, and a ‘Better Broadband’ voucher scheme for households run by BDUK. This will provide a discount of up to £350 for installation of a service to improve speeds for those outside the current projects. This usually means satellite. Again, will properties that Have used this scheme be excluded from the R100 programme?
The connectivity landscape is a complex one added to by many private companies, the ongoing issues with the BT-Openreach relationship and programmes to create ‘Gigabyte’ cities, such as Stirling. We all know that having a reliable, affordable service that has the capacity to cope with the increasing demands that will placed upon it is now a basic utility requirement. Unless everyone has access to these networks, the connectivity gap will widen to a point where it will seriously undermine the sustainability of those communities left behind, a process that is already well underway.
Stephen Kerr
Member of Parliament for Stirling