As the superfast fibre broadband rollout heads into the home straight, we’re moving into new territory – in every sense. It was always going to be the case that connecting rural and difficult to reach communities to the fibre network would be the most challenging aspect of the roll-out.
Recently we saw two pioneering subsea cabling projects hit the headlines as they aim to connect remote island communities off the coast both north and south of the UK.
Off the West Coast of Scotland, we saw the start of the biggest fibre cable laying project ever undertaken in the UK. This will deliver superfast broadband to some of the country’s most remote island communities and, as it progresses, will see around 400km of cable being laid.
There’s obviously a huge amount to consider with a project like this, not least the impact on the environment and users of the sea. Early routes where subsea cables are being deployed include Largs, Cumbrae, Cowal, Mull, Oban, Ardgour and Corran. This is part of a three-year project to bring superfast broadband to the region.
In a similar vein, a major month-long operation is currently underway to divert a fibre optic cable between the UK and Spain to the Isles of Scilly, in a pioneering scheme to give the islanders much faster fibre broadband.
The 939 kilometre cable between Porthcurno, Cornwall, and Santander, Spain, has remained unused on the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean since it was taken out of service in 2006 after 11 years of handling high-speed international communications.
The cable has been cut at two points in the Atlantic and a section diverted to the Isles of Scilly. And it’s expected that the islanders will be able to order high-speed fibre broadband before the end of the year.
Until now, the 2,200 residents of the Isles of Scilly have relied upon a broadband service provided by a radio link between Lands End and the islands.
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