Home  |  About Us  |  Press Room  |  2003  |  New Broadband Link for Scottish Borders

2003

Scottish Borders Rural Broadband has this week contracted with THUS to provide a wireless Broadband connection to businesses and homes in a number of different towns across the Borders region.

Customers will be able to get broadband by linking into the service through a wireless receiver attached to their premises. The broadband signal will then be relayed to Galashiels and on to Edinburgh and the worldwide web.

This innovative pilot project will be run by Scottish Borders Rural Broadband Ltd on behalf of Scottish Enterprise Borders and operated by THUS.

This is just one of a number of Scottish Enterprise (SE) Broadband for Business projects being run by the Enterprise Network as part of a comprehensive, integrated strategy to get both urban and rural areas linked up to faster telecommunications. SE's Broadband for Business Programme is funded by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Scottish Executive.

"SE is committed to making all companies more competitive through effective use of eBusiness applications, no matter where they are based," said SE chief executive, Robert Crawford.

"Affordable access to broadband technology is central to this. Taking advantage of the new markets and lower costs the web can offer is just as relevant to companies in Border towns as it is in Scotland's cities."

"This is an important step in testing innovative solutions to linking up areas that are unlikely to have broadband access in the near future without public sector investment."

Work is progressing to develop the broadband network and it is anticipated that the network will start operations later this year.

Bill Allan, chief executive of THUS plc, said today: "The creation of this network in the Scottish Borders is a tremendous step forward for home-users and small and medium size businesses in the area and we are delighted to play our part.

"It will mean that high-speed, always-on telecommunications will be available to companies who believe these services are essential to their development and growth and residential users will also be able to benefit from wide range of broadband services that will be provided across the network.

"The creation of this network is a highly significant development in broadband provision in Scotland."