A £3.3 million contract has been awarded by the Scottish Government to roll out broadband communications to the remaining remote communities still relying on dial up.
Around 3,800 businesses and households, mainly in the Highlands and Islands, who registered and were verified as being unable to get a landline broadband service will see Avanti Caledonian Broadband Ltd start to deploy services within weeks. The project is expected to take less than a year to complete and will rely on a variety of satellite and wireless technologies dependent on user numbers.
In areas with fewer than four subscribers, each will receive an individual, direct satellite dish. Where there are between four and 29 subscribers, Wi-Fi based wireless antennae will link users to a network satellite connection. For 30 or more users, wireless radio antennae will link to a network that uses a DSL landline-based broadband connection.
Avanti Caledonian Broadband Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of AIM listed Avanti Communications Group Plc., are now writing to all verified registrants to outline the programme. The price for 512/256Kbps is £23.50 per month. There is no installation/set up cost at all. Higher bandwidths and alternative packages including business packages are also available.
Avanti Communications is offering wholesale services, which are available if other ISPs wish to offer services using the Avanti networks. So far, no other ISPs have taken up the offer.
Further details of the project, regular updates on progress and the complete range of broadband packages are available on the Avanti Broadband Reach project (Scotland) web pages. Or telephone 020 7749 8100.
