Rural Scottish community comes together for Full Fibre upgrade
A rural community’s long wait to get connected to fast, reliable internet is finally over after residents formed a local partnership with digital network Openreach, backed by funding from the UK and Scottish governments.
The community is just six miles from the centre of Glasgow but had struggled with super-slow broadband for years. Now, more than 400 households in Baldernock and neighbouring communities have access to some of the fastest, most reliable broadband in Europe.
Families can connect multiple devices, stream entertainment without constant buffering, and work and study effectively at home.
Fibre Community Partnerships see Openreach co-fund and build new full fibre networks for areas which – for various technical or economic reasons – haven’t been included in the upgrade plans of any provider.
Broadband vouchers from the UK Government that were supplemented by funding from the Scottish Government’s Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme have enabled Openreach to bring faster, more reliable connections to rural communities.
The Baldernock community campaign kicked off after local resident Lesley Wiseman and her husband Brian discovered there were no plans to improve the inadequate digital infrastructure on which they and their neighbours depended.
Their broadband speeds were so slow that their three-year-old granddaughter learned to ask them to switch off Wi-Fi on their phones to stop her TV shows from buffering. Zoom meetings often failed, and visitors were astonished that connectivity could be so poor when they could clearly see Scotland’s largest city from the garden.
Lesley said: “We and our neighbours had some of the slowest broadband in Scotland. In 2019 full fibre was being delivered to some parts of our community but we were shocked to find there were no plans at all for any upgrade to reach us.
“By April 2020, with lockdown imposed and whole families trying to work and study from their homes with speeds of much less than 5Mbps, I again pursued an answer – only to come up against a series of dead ends.”
Later that year, a Fibre Community Partnership with Openreach was proposed at an online meeting organised by Baldernock Community Council, and the initial build plan started out with just 30 households.
But as the community and its development trust (The Baldernock Trust) worked with the digital network to iron out data issues and include more properties and businesses, supported by Strathkelvin and Bearsden MSP Rona Mackay, the number grew to more than 400.
A team of local volunteers went door-to-door to make sure everyone who could be included – scattered across Baldernock, Torrance and the outskirts of Glasgow – knew how to support the project, with the build starting soon after.
“Hundreds of local people and businesses can finally enjoy the benefits of a full fibre service,” added Lesley. “It’s a worthwhile end to almost seven years of frustration and community effort to make sure no-one was left behind.”
Stephen Chambers, Openreach Rural Engagement Manager, said: “For many of us, fast, reliable internet is now on-tap just like water, but that isn’t the case everywhere.
“The people of Baldernock and the surrounding area were determined to bridge the digital divide and worked with us to overcome many challenges along the way.
“The path wasn’t smooth but they now have access to the best connectivity available, along with 35,000 other properties across East Dunbartonshire.”
People can visit openreach.co.uk/ultrafastfullfibre to check what services are available at their address, register for build updates and find out more about the benefits of full fibre.
