Scottish villages chosen for broadband boosting pilot
Can we have some of these pilots in remote rural England please. This fascinating story tells us:
Villagers in some of the more remote parts of Scotland will take part in a pilot for a new broadband boosting technology.
It is the first commercial trial of the technology, which increases broadband speeds over very long phone lines.
About 60 premises in Argyll and the Hebrides are among six UK locations picked to take part.
The pilot comes after successful trials which began on the Isle of Lewis last summer to see if the technology worked.
The technology – known as Long Reach VDSL – is being piloted by telecoms infrastructure provider Openreach which wants to understand how the technology can improve broadband speeds for homes and businesses across the country.
Because of the laws of physics, broadband speeds tend to slow down over long distances.
But Long Reach VDSL operates at higher power levels and makes use of a wider range of frequencies to increase broadband speeds and the distance over which they can be delivered.
Clachan and Whitehouse on the Kintyre peninsula and Eriskay in the Western Isles were chosen because of their remote locations and low download speeds, which are currently less than 10Mbps.