People living on Fair Isle, the UK's most geographically remote inhabited island, have received a significant connectivity improvement.
Openreach has delivered to the islanders full fibre broadband, thanks in part to funding from the Scottish Government's R100 programme, as well as the UK Government.
The delivery of the fibre broadband is an achievement for the UK carrier, as it is the longest distance Openreach has been able to transmit a continuous full fibre signal anywhere in the UK. Fair Isle connection.
Fair Isle is situated halfway between the Orkney and Shetland Islands.
Openreach began the fibre cable from a central distribution point, in the Lerwick Exchange on the Shetland Islands.
It then passes through a repeater in Sumburgh, 37km away, which amplifies the light signal.
That allows the spur line to travel to its destination in Fair Isle, more than 75km away, using the new subsea fibre cable between Shetland and the island.
As the fibre lands ashore on Fair Isle, it is connected into a Sub-tended Headend which in turn boosts the optical signal out into the local community.
This provides all 51 occupied premises on the island with ultrafast broadbands speeds.
Previously, the islanders had to make do with a meagre 0.5Mbps connection.
A post office and shop on Fair Isle are among businesses which are already connected and all premises on the island can now order the service.
The project has been funded through the Scottish Government's £404m Reaching 100% North contract, as well as £17.4 million from the UK Government.
In October 2022, two cables connecting the British mainland to the Shetland and Faroe Islands were repaired after they were damaged.
Police had declared a major incident after the subsea cable connecting the Shetland Isles to the UK mainland was damaged - severing telephone and internet communications.
A second cable connecting the mainland to Shetland and the Faroe Islands had also been damaged a week earlier.
This Cyber News was published on www.silicon.co.uk. Publication date: Thu, 28 Dec 2023 10:43:04 +0000