National Islands Plan: annual report 2023

Digital Connectivity

Strategic objective 6 – Improve digital connectivity

Commitment 6.1 Deliver a step change in the quality of digital connectivity across the islands.

Implementation Route Map 2023

• The Scottish Government is investing £384 million in the Reaching 100% (R100) North lot contract which covers the majority of Scotland’s inhabited islands. In August 2022, the Scottish Government announced that it is investing a further £20.2 million, alongside £9.4 million of UKG funding, to extend full fibre broadband coverage in the R100 North contract to a further 1,488 premises across Argyll & Bute, Na h-Eileanan Siar, Orkney and Shetland Islands.
• The Scottish Government will continue to urge the UK Government to ensure that plans are in place to offer ultrafast connectivity to premises considered by UK Government ‘Very Hard to Reach’ for the purposes of Project Gigabit.
• We will continue to progress the Scottish Government’s 4G Infill (S4GI) programme, with all of the 55 sites to be delivered through the programme being located on islands or in rural Scotland.

Through our Reaching 100% (R100) programme we continue to extend the reach of future-proofed digital infrastructure across Scotland’s islands. Over 12,000 island premises are expected to receive a connection thanks to the Scottish Government’s £404 million investment in the R100 North contract, alongside £17.5 million of UK Government funding. All of the connections to be delivered through the R100 North contract will be fibre to the premises (FTTP) capable of delivering gigabit download speeds, over 30 times faster than our original superfast commitment.

Our R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme is also making an impact on Scotland’s islands with 189 connections delivered by 1 December 2023 thanks to the scheme.

Delivery of the £28.75 million Scottish 4G Infill (S4GI) programme continued at pace over 2023 with 55 masts activated for 4G in rural and island Scotland by the end of December 2023, resolving longstanding mobile notspots and completing the programme’s delivery.

This includes 17 masts on island locations (Orkney mainland, Stromness, Stronsay, Shetland mainland, Foula, Lewis and Harris, North Uist, Mull, Skye and Jura) at a cost of £10.02 million which is over a third of the S4GI programme’s overall investment. S4GI is improving everyday life for the communities our masts serve, directly supporting wider plans for local tourism and enabling residents to access digital services and stay in touch with families and friends.

Commitment 6.2 Mandate the delivery of gigabit-capable connectivity to selected island locations, through the R100 programme, with many other island communities to benefit once contracts are finalised.

Implementation Route Map 2023

• The R100 contracts, alongside our Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme, ensured that anyone who required a superfast broadband connections, could access one by end December 2021. The R100 programme has delivered 16 new fibre optic subsea cables providing resilient, futureproofed connectivity to 15 Scottish islands for decades to come. This is in addition to 20 subsea cables delivered through our legacy programme, DSSB. The vast majority of R100 contract build will be fibre to the premises (FTTP), capable of delivering gigabit speeds – putting island communities in Scotland ahead of the curve, even compared to many urban areas.
• Through the R100 North contract, we will continue to progress delivery with over 12,000 premises located in island communities expected to receive a gigabit-capable connection.

During 2023, terrestrial work began to connect premises to subsea cables and by the end of November 2023 around 1,400 island premises had been connected through the R100 North contracts. All of the R100 North contract build will be gigabit-capable fibre to the premises (FTTP).

An example of the transformational impact of the R100 programme is the delivery of improved digital connectivity to Fair Isle in Shetland, almost two years earlier than planned. More information is available here.

Commitment 6.3 Call on the UK Government to prioritise early investment in Scotland’s islands as part of their plans for full fibre roll-out by 2025.

Implementation Route Map 2023

• We will continue to engage with UK Ministers to ensure Scotland receives its fair share of Project Gigabit funding, urging the UK Government to commit a level of funding that allows early investment in Scotland’s islands.
• The Scottish Government is investing a further £20.2 million, alongside £9.4 million of UKG funding, to extend full fibre broadband coverage in the R100 North contract to a further 1,488 premises across Argyll & Bute, Na h-Eileanan Siar, Orkney and Shetland Islands. This is expected to complete build on four islands – namely Westray, Rousay, Hoy and Eday.

For more information on the R100 programme, please see commitments 6.1 and 6.2.

In November 2023, we published the findings of our Public Review, used to identify premises eligible for intervention via Project Gigabit. We have worked with Building Digital UK (BDUK), and engaged with the broadband infrastructure suppliers, to develop a number of potential Project Gigabit procurements in Scotland. Initial findings suggest that there is potential supplier interest in a number of areas across Scotland, including Orkney and Shetland.

The first Project Gigabit procurements in Scotland are expected to launch in phases throughout 2024. Throughout this joint work, we will continue to urge the UK Government to commit a level of funding that will enable Project Gigabit to deliver across all of Scotland, including for its rural and island communities.

Commitment 6.4 Call on Ofcom to address the issues faced by island communities when designing telecoms regulation and policy. We also committed to convene a meeting with Ofcom and island representatives to explore how regulatory levers (such as spectrum auctions) could improve both mobile and broadband coverage on the islands and ensure that the needs of islands are represented to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in UK national policy development.

Implementation Route Map 2023

• We will continue to work with island partners including local authorities, communities and business to gather evidence of demonstrate needs of islands in regards to mobile and broadband coverage.
• The Scottish Government continues to work closely with representatives of OFCOM to ensure that Scotland’s interests are represented and any issues raised. This also includes co-ordinating regular liaison between OFCOM and DCMS representatives with our recognised local authority single points of contact for digital connectivity, including representatives of island communities.

We have successfully secured £17.5 million of UK Government Project Gigabit funding to extend and enhance the R100 North contracts. This is being used, alongside £404 million of Scottish Government funding, to help extend R100 contract build to over 1,400 additional island premises.

We continue to work with island partners including local authorities, communities and business in regards to improving mobile and broadband coverage.

We also liaise closely with representatives of OFCOM to ensure that Scotland’s interests are represented and any issues raised promptly and proactively. This includes co-ordinating regular liaison between OFCOM and UK Government Department for Science and Technology (DSIT) representatives with our recognised local authority single points of contact for digital connectivity, including representatives of island communities and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

A deep dive session on digital connectivity was held on the occasion of the Convention of the Highlands and Islands (COHI) meeting in November 2023.

We also engage on and regularly promote Ofcom’s Plan of Work and relevant telecoms regulation and policy consultations to island representatives and use those opportunities to feed in any island-specific concerns.

Commitment 6.5 Through the Scotland 5G Centre, build on the 5G RuralFirst trials currently taking place on Orkney, and working with partners including Ofcom, we committed to develop rural 5G use cases to address the rural digital divide using 5G technology.

Implementation Route Map 2023

• Working with the Scotland 5G Centre, and in partnership with the 5G New Thinking project, we continue to monitor the progress of the pan-island testbed 5G network trials (including fixed wireless access and spectrum sharing) and key 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) use case applications (including energy and food & drink), and explore how the trial’s outputs and lessons learned can be mainstreamed and help inform policy in addressing the rural digital divide.
• Private 5G networks have been built on Westray and Papa Westray, and on Flotta and Hoy, working with local on-island partners Cloudnet IT Services and Orkney Islands Council. A total of seven 5G rural private network base stations have been installed and providing connectivity to 68 trialists across the these island communities. A 5G network core was set up and a network monitoring system developed for the network operations. Physical deployment activity concluded in March 2022, however, since then, the project team has maintained and operated the network, and also carried out additional engineering to allow scope for further innovative projects.

Work is ongoing in relation to project engagement and deployment on Orkney.

Through the Scotland 5G Centre’s Wave 1 rural project and in partnership with the 5G New Thinking project from 2019-22, equipment was procured to build private 5G networks on Westray and Papa Westray, and on Flotta and Hoy working with on-island partners Cloudnet IT Services and Orkney Islands Council. Seven 5G rural private network base stations were installed and provided connectivity to local trialists across communities.

Since the conclusion of physical deployment activity in March 2022, the project team on Orkney has continued to maintain and operate components of the 5G networks, and has carried out additional engineering for progress of further innovative projects with applications for funding submitted to DSIT, UK Space Agency and InnovateUK.

Commitment 6.6 Work with local resilience partnerships and telecoms providers to encourage them to focus on resilience of data links to and from the islands.

Implementation Route Map 2023

• Scottish Government will continue engaging with relevant resilience partnerships and, through this engagement, will identify any challenges to resilience of data links to and from the islands.

Work continues on improving data links to and from our islands.

The Scottish Government is investing £600 million in the R100 contracts which are delivering gigabit capable, fibre to the premises connections across rural Scotland. The three R100 contracts are currently expected to connect at least 114,000 premises in some of the hardest to reach areas in Scotland.

Our £28.75 million Scottish 4G Infill (S4GI) investment in future-proofed digital infrastructure has delivered 4G mobile infrastructure to 55 mobile “notspots”, improving rural and island 4G mobile coverage.

Commitment 6.7 Develop a digital skills programme designed by island communities to meet their needs.

Implementation Route Map 2023

• We will continue to engage with island communities to understand digital skills needs.
• We will learn from existing programmes being delivered in island communities and support their implementation across the islands.
• We will engage with education providers, agencies, and local authorities to understand more of what skills programmes are being implemented across the islands.

Please see commitment 6.8 for more information on initiatives taken in relation to digital skills.

Data Lab Innovation Centre

The Data Lab (TDL) Innovation Centre is funded Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise. It is also receives funding from the Scottish Funding Council through the Innovation Centres programme.

TDL and the Scottish Government have also partnered to establish the Scottish Artificial Intelligence (AI) Alliance. Organisations across Shetland, Orkney, Western Isles and Skye have accessed data and AI courses promoted by TDL.

TDL have worked with the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) to ensure their projects are available to people across the region, with a group of students and lecturers from UHI supported to attend the annual Data Talent recruitment event.

Highland and Islands Enterprise (HIE) have also supported both public and private organisations to make a learning journey to the annual Data Summit in Edinburgh, an international showcase of data and AI innovation.

Commitment 6.8 Extend the availability of coding clubs and community-based digital inclusion programmes across the islands.

Implementation Route Map 2023

• We will learn from existing programmes being delivered in the island communities and support their implementation across the islands.

Over the course of the 2022-23 financial year, we supported Silicon Croft to undertake educator engagement and collaboration across Shetland with a view to sharing resources, raising awareness and developing digital skills.

This project aims to create a system that links existing resources together to create a network of learning that allows Silicon Croft members to own their digital skills development. The approach focuses on educator engagement and collaboration, whilst sharing a wide range of resources to raise awareness and develop digital skills. The aim is to integrate digital skills across the curriculum and support the development of rural digital economies.

This continues the progress made in 2022, through holding CodeClubs and engaging with schools in skills development across Shetland, with a view to extending the delivery of the model across Orkney, Skye and Na h-Eileanan Siar. The project is actively engaging with higher and further education providers, and Skills Development Scotland to explore how to align this project with foundation and modern apprenticeships, and future digital careers.