Top award for Badenoch broadband group
A fault in a Badenoch community’s broadband connection four years ago has led to national honours.
When this week’s finalists of the Rural Innovator Awards were named, there among them was Badenoch Broadband & Communication CIC.
The organisation entered the world when the local Laggan exchange suffered a fault which lead to intermittent broadband for six weeks. After finally getting the fault fixed by BT, a group of four met in a local hotel in the winter of 2010 to discuss the possibilities of improving the community’s connectivity.
After looking at all the options, and having realised that the telephone exchange would not be upgraded, they agreed that a long-distance wireless system was the only feasible option.
The team were advised by Professor Peter Buneman, from the Tegola Project, who helped it through its early stages.
To finance the project, the community voted to use some of the SSE pylon mitigation money that it had been awarded following the approval of the massive Beauly-Denny power line. The money was match-funded by a LEADER grant and, latterly, the Enterprise Growth Fund.
Over the next two years volunteers built and configured the first three masts, which allowed all those in visual distance to connect to a faster more reliable broadband. That included those too far away from the exchange to experience broadband speeds for the first time.
In the last 12 months three further masts have been constructed and the group are continuing to extend the network to include surrounding villages, with the plan soon to be offering “superfast” connections which will be the fastest available in Badenoch.
The awards are running for the first time this year and celebrate “the best of Scotland’s rural projects, people and organisations who are improving life in rural communities by tackling one of the priority challenges.”
There were seven categories which are the main themes for the first inaugural Scottish Rural Parliament, a three-day event taking place in Oban until Saturday (8).
The finalists were chosen by a public vote on Facebook and on the Scottish Rural Parliament website.
Said a spokesman for the Laggan company: “We feel very honoured to win receive this award. It is amazing for all the hard work involved to be recognised and it goes to show what a rural community can do when it works together, any obstacle can be overcome!
“It goes a long way to recognising all the free time and hard work the community has put in to make it happen. Well done Laggan!!!”
