Community ISP's
It’s been inspiring to see Community Broadband networks spring up across Scotland, and be part of the professionalisation of these small Internet Service Providers (ISP’s). Some of these regional providers are now growing to become serious competitors even in areas with decent fiber to the cabinet (FTTC) or even fiber to the premises (FTTP) connections. While the Openreach fiber network grows, many Community Broadband subscribers opt to stay with their friendly local ISP, who in many cases can now also offer FTTC/FTTP packages.
Meanwhile, there are areas where there is a need for improvement. If you are a community organisation looking to set up an ISP in your area, I might be able to help.
Tegola, leading to Loch Hourn Broadband and wholesale provider HUBS.
While Internet access was quickly becoming an essential fixture for every household, many remote communities realized that they would have to take set up their own Internet Service Provider networks. The Loch Hourn Broadband Cooperative and HUBS are such organisations. They grew from a research project at the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh initiated in 2008. I have been fortunate to work for them over the past five years.
Over this time a lot of fiber has been installed so that the vast majority of subscribers depend on only one radio link for their primary connection, and a small number on two radio links. We also added two additional independent gateway routers for added resilience.
Some figures for the Loch Hourn Broadband Internet service:
- Speed 100 Mbps downlaod, 50 Mbps upload.
- Latency < 20 ms.
- Uptime = uptime of Openreach Fiber (in Arnisdale).
- Customer service - neighbours.
- Very competitive pricing, thanks to a lot of volunteer input.
- And now also with 4G mobile-phone coverage, courtesy of with WaveMobile.