Client: Avanti Communications
Project: Broadband Reach Project

Background

Broadband internet has become an absolutely necessity to today’s modern family and business. Internet connectivity via broadband assists small businesses retain and attract new and existing customers as well as allowing staff to work remotely. Those that live in rural or remote locations like the highlands of Scotland can’t receive ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) because of a ‘reach’ problem.

At its simplest, a ‘reach’ problem is when a house or business is physically too far away from the broadband-enabled exchange which serves it, to receive the broadband service. As a very rough indicator, any location out with a 5.6 km radius (approx 8 km line length) from the telephone exchange may not be able to receive broadband. However, it's not an exact science and broadband has been known to be available on longer lines and conversely unavailable on shorter ones.

The key factor is the length of the telephone line from the exchange to the location. The presence of hills, valleys, water and the route the cabling takes (typically following a road) all add to the length of the line. Other factors include the quality of the copper cabling/joints and the presence of aluminum on the line. Any, or a combination of these, will affect an individual location's ability to receive a broadband service.

Summary

To address the problem in Scotland and to give homes, business and communities an opportunity to receive broadband, the Scottish Executive tendered for a £3.3M contract to deliver an affordable broadband service to those households and businesses that were out of reach of the technology. 

Following a competitive open procurement, the selected supplier was Avanti Communications, who in turn appointed Remote Technical Services as their installation partner. Avanti Communications and Remote Technical Services aimed to utilise a mix of technologies, including satellite and wireless, to deliver a broadband solution appropriate to the location and density of those that have made themselves known to the Scottish Government.

Over 3,800 premises spread all across Scotland were included in this contract. Rollout of services started in July 2008 and were completed on time and in budget by the end of May 2009.

The direct Satellite Service is provided using a two way VSAT Hub network connected to a two way Satellite Interactive Terminal installed at the customer's premises. The Terminal is fully compliant with the Digital Video Broadcasting ‐ Return Channel via Satellite (DVB‐RCS). The signal is received and transmitted using a satellite dish fitted with an outdoor transceiver system. In most areas of Scotland an 84cm or 96cm ASC antenna has been installed by Remote Technical Services and Avanti Engineers. Dishes have been mounted on a variety of surfaces, including roofs, walls and poles (kingposts) in Gardens. RDS has installed over a thousand Satellite terminals for Avanti as part of this project and runs its own customer VNO (Virtual Network Operator) Network on the Avanti service.

Shared “WiFi” Services have also been installed by Remote Technical Services and Avanti’s own installation teams in many locations across the region in order to provide small communities or clusters of customers with Broadband connectivity through a single Satellite Terminal. Each customer receiving their broadband service via this technology connects to the WiFi signal via an small compact SU (Subscriber Unit) positioned in the line to achieve the highest possible signal strength from the local aerial.

On the Black Isle, just north of Inverness, Remote Technical Services has provided a fully installed and operational 15Mbit/s, 5.8Ghz licensed Radio Wireless solution to Avanti for this project via large radio wireless masts erected at the best location to service the highest number of users possible.

Each customer that receives their broadband service via this technology connects to the wireless signal via an external SU (Subscriber Unit) which points towards the antenna of the base station located on the radio wireless mast.