Scottish Borders Region could be ‘most connected’ by 2020

Jeremy Purvis, MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale has been promoting his action plan for the area entitled “A digital strategy for the Borders”, which aims to make the region one of the best connected parts of the entire country, boasting to make it the most connected rural region in Scotland by 2015 and in the whole of the UK by 2020.

It’s certainly a much more forward looking document than anything we’ve seen come out of the UK government for some time, and rather than attempting to just get its citizens connected, the strategy hopes to get them connected at a very good speed; one that will still prove useful years down the line.

Normally UK schemes focus on connectability rather than future proofing, with the now delayed USC only ever promising 2 Mbps, slow by today’s standards and possibly completed outdated for most UK net users by 2015. The reports suggests that the average user will be using about 10 Mbps by 2012, and suggests that any attempt to seek high speed broadband in the area should aim for at least 20 Mbps by 2017.

Speaking to the Southern Reporter, Jeremy Purvis said:

“It is totally unacceptable and extremely bad for the economy if almost half the entire population of the region would be excluded from the higher broadband speeds up to 2017.

The meeting by the UK Government and operators (last week) is a positive move and I am also making contact with them about a combined effort to put forward a market-led solution for delivery. That should be used as the basis to lobby the government for specific support for the region.”

Of course, announcing a plan and writing a strategy is one thing; actually putting the plan into action is quite another. The plan suggests helping homes rewire their telephone cables to get better speeds, supporting a more widespread and efficient mobile broadband network and extending free Wi-Fi networks.

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