Business broadband upgrade 'will benefit everybody'

Firms in Scotland stand to benefit greatly from an improvement that is due to be made to the country's business broadband infrastructure.

Brendan Dick, director of BT Scotland, has used an article for the Scotsman to outline his thoughts on the Scottish Government's decision to roll out next-generation digital technology in a bid to bring the fastest speeds to companies and residential users – something he described as "great news".

He said that while homeowners will enjoy easier, faster and more reliable access to sites such as Facebook and YouTube, the real advantages will be felt by businesses. With BT due to invest £2.5 billion in a project that will see fibre-optic broadband brought to two-thirds of UK premises, it is an exciting time.

This will be done in two ways – by delivering superior services in both fibre to the cabinet and fibre to the premises technology. The first of these involves laying fibre cables from the roadside to buildings.

"Scotland's rugged terrain and disparate population present unique challenges that make investment decisions more difficult but the country will benefit immensely from next generation broadband. A partnership approach will make this more viable," Mr Dick explained.

"In the current financial climate they need every tool in the box, including an IT infrastructure that helps them to compete – not just regionally but globally," he added.

Scotland's business broadband users can currently expect to receive a service that averages at a speed of about ten Megabits per second (Mbps), but with FTTC in place that will rise to roughly 40 Mbps.

And once FTTP links are installed, those download rates will soar to approximately 300 Mbps.

Virgin Media this week confirmed that ten million Britons now have access to its new 100 Mbps broadband offering – and it hopes to reach half the country in the coming years.