Caithness frozen out from new broadband upgrade

CAITHNESS has not been selected as one of eight locations in the Highlands and Moray to be among the first to be part of a broadband upgrade initiative designed to improve connectivity in rural areas.

The Highlands and Islands Next Generation Broadband Scheme announced Ardersier, Buckie, Milton of Leys, Fortrose, Hopeman, Inverness Culloden, Lhanbryde and Lossiemouth areas had been chosen for the first roll-out of the £149 million scheme, which will see broadband speeds of up to 80 megabyte per second in their area by early next year.

But IT chiefs in Caithness have blasted the locations chosen claiming the scheme has selected areas of the Highlands and Islands with the greatest density of population rather than helping businesses in rural isolated locations.

With several multi-million pound companies in the far north operating on broadband connection speeds of less than 1MB per second, they claim the far north is in danger of being left behind at a critical time of the decommissioning phase at Dounreay.

Read more in Wednesday’s Caithness Courier.