Superfast broadband cables

Some 250 miles of fibre optic cables have been laid on the seabed as part of a massive fibre network to bring high-speed fibre broadband to 84% of the Highlands and Islands by the end of 2016.

The underwater cable work is now complete with efforts now focusing on over-ground connections.

The exercise is hailed as the most complex sub-sea engineering challenge ever undertaken by BT in UK waters.

The longest subsea route is nearly 50 miles long under the Minch from Ullapool to Stornoway, with other sub-sea cables laid across the Western Isles.

The £26.9 million subsea project is part of the £146 million Digital Highlands and Islands rollout which will make faster, more reliable services available to more than 150,000 premises across the region’s mainly rural communities for the first time.

Deputy First Minister, John Swinney said: “Today marks an incredibly important step in the completion of the most complex ever underwater engineering that Scotland has seen. It is a hugely impressive technological feat that work has been completed in such a short timescale.

Underwater superfast broadband cables complete

7 December 2014

“In the coming months, thanks to the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband Programme, many island communities will start to benefit from fibre broadband – that otherwise would not have received coverage. The rollout of superfast broadband will allow many households across our islands to connect to fibre broadband services for the first time, as well as giving businesses the opportunity to enhance their services.”

Work will now continue on land to complete the main network, linking the subsea connections together. The first island communities to connect directly as a result of the new subsea links will go live during Spring next year. Local people will have access to fibre broadband speeds of up to 80Mbps, around ten times faster than the current top speeds available on most Scottish islands, many of which are currently connected by radio links.

The subsea roll-out work started in July, with the contract carried out for BT by French specialist cable laying firm Orange Marine. Their ship, the 14,000-tonne Rene Descartes, with its submersible plough, remotely operated vehicles and other support vessels, has become a common sight in the north and west coastlines as it has powered on from location to location burying the double-armoured cable in the seabed.

As well as the subsea work, the onshore activity to connect the cables to BT’s terrestrial network has been carried out by Hampshire-based A-2-Sea Solutions.