Shetland Threatens to Go it Alone on Future Broadband Upgrades

The remote Shetland Islands Council (SIC) has decide to start exploring the possibility of extending “superfast broadband” coverage across the island(s) by itself, which they say is due to a “failure to deliver” under the Scottish Government’s wider £600m R100 (Reaching 100%) programme.

The R100 scheme has been hit by various delays since it was announced several years ago. BT (Openreach) was widely expected to pick-up the contract for the relevant LOT 1 (Northern Scotland) area last year (here), which was originally valued at c.£384m; this reflects about 100,000 premises across the Highlands and Islands, Angus, Aberdeen and Dundee.

Unfortunately, that plan fell through after it emerged that rival bidder Gigaclear had lodged a legal challenge against the award due to claims of a “manifest error” in the procurement process (here). The case is expected to be heard in a few weeks’ time and the hope is that a conclusion can be reached before the end of this year, which is when the current state aid agreement runs out.

Meanwhile the contracts that have already been awarded to BT, specifically LOT 2 (Central Scotland) and LOT 3 (South Scotland), are not due to fully complete until the end of 2023 and 2024 respectively. As a result, the SIC are concerned that they may have to wait even longer before their side of LOT 1 is finished, assuming it even gets going in the first place.

Councillor Steven Coutts, SIC Political Leader, said (Shetnews):

“We have had words and commitments from government but little action. The failure to deliver has left a significant digital divide across our community.

This was laid bare as we responded to Covid-19 restrictions and the need to work and study and retain social contact through digital means. For many across Shetland, they simply couldn’t do this. That is unacceptable.

The latest legal challenge to R100 is another delay to the programme. As a council we will now be looking to assess what we can do to scope out what is needed. This is very much at early stages but we are losing faith in government programmes to properly design and deliver for Shetland.”

In fairness, this frustration is shared by the Scottish Government, which are equally keen to get the ball rolling on LOT 1 but have little option except to wait for the court case to proceed. As the Scottish Minister for Connectivity, Paul Wheelhouse, said: “We are as disappointed as local authorities … at the delay this is causing to the north lot … We are happy to discuss with Shetland Islands Council any proposals it might have.”

A new voucher scheme is due to launch soon, which will be designed to help fill the void while a proper solution is found, although we’re still awaiting the final details on that (here). However, the idea of going it alone seems like a difficult proposition for such a remote community, which will only have very limited funding available.

Lest we forget that developing another scheme and awarding contracts can take an awfully long time, which may or may not result in the R100 situation being resolved before that even has a chance to get off the ground. At this stage it’s difficult to say whether this is all just a case of playing politics or if there’s something more tangible to the proposed direction. Time will tell.