Highlands lead broadband way

SCOTLAND is to become one of the first countries in Europe to gain 100 per cent high speed internet access, after BT announced it is to roll out its broadband satellite service across the country.

The company said it was expanding the service, after a successful trial in the Highlands and Islands, with immediate effect.

Previously, SMEs in rural areas of Scotland have been unable to get a high speed internet connection because of the lack of a dedicated terrestrial network, which has hindered the growth of knowledge-based companies.

A dozen small businesses in the north of Scotland are already using the BT service, which offers download speeds up to 10 times faster than conventional dial-up connections, with a further 50 firms expected to sign up in the next few weeks.

However, the satellite system is more expensive than conventional high speed connections.

A scaled-back version of the product, which allows a user to connect a single PC to the service, costs 69.99 a month, plus a one-off connection fee of 899. A larger version, which allows four PCs to be connected, costs 139.99 a month, with a connection fee of 1,299.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise have committed 250,000 to the project to subsidise the initial costs of the system and BT said yesterday that Scottish Enterprise Borders, Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley and Scottish Enterprise Dumfries and Galloway have also pledged financial assistance for SMEs in their areas.

Tony Harris, senior vice-president of BTopenworld, said the support of HIE had made a "big impact" on take-up and challenged all other local enterprise companies to follow its lead.

"Support is needed for the development of a mainstream product at a price that is not a barrier to SMEs," he said.

He added that the price of the system would drop as more firms signed-up.