Brendan Dick would like to set the record straight after some have claimed the north-east lacks sufficient digital infrastructure.
The director of BT Scotland is proud of the firm’s record of investment and believes that the Aberdeen region is well served by the stuff that pipes “superfast broadband” to homes and businesses. This is despite claims by rivals that the region is a bit of a connectivity backwater.
Former state monopoly BT has “largely completed” work and investment in superfast fibre broadband in the region, he says.
“More than 98,100 homes and business premises can now access fibre products at wholesale speeds of up to 80 Megabits per second from their choice of service provider,” says Mr Dick. “Added to coverage in Aberdeenshire that figure rises to nearly 154,000.
“Unlike other network operators our network is open, creating a competitive local market.”
In the last few years, BT has invested close to £3billion in its commercial fibre broadband system across the UK. The includes the £126million dedicated to the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband partnership, which along with the Scottish Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, has extended fibre networks across the Higlands and ISlands, as well as the city and shire and into places like Bucksburn and Dyce. Recently, its wholesale fibre broadband network, through Openreach, arrived on Shetland, more than 100 miles from the Scottish mainland.
Speak to Mr Dick long enough, and he’ll talk your ear off about how important he thinks digital connectivity is to the economy and communities.
“One of the conversations I am having these days, is how ICT – like email – is not a cost add on. It is much more fundamental. It is at the heart of your business strategy.”
For Mr Dick, who in addition to his day job has a number of civic roles, including being Honorary President of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), it is not just about the fibre, pipes and wires.
For firms like BT – as well as other communications infrastructure providers – there is scepticism about making multi-million investments on the basis that “if you build it they will come”.
Mr Dick says: “If you put the stuff in worth millions and no one is using it, it is a waste of money. That’s what we need to work on.
“The key thing is if you are looking at the economic development of a geography, you get conversations going so that investment we have been making and will make, is best aligned to where the local market is going to go. It is easy to say but not as easy to do.
“There’s a lack of ability to articulate demand. At the end of the day – whether it is BT, Vodafone, anybody, they are all commercial operations. There needs to be some sense of demand.”
He praises the Elsick Development Company, the firm set up by the Earl of Southesk to develop a new town just south of Aberdeen. The firm has been working with BT’s Openreach to ensure that there is already scope to provide fibre to the 8,000-home town – rather than ripping up streets later.
Mr Dick admits this is a bit of a “no brainer”, yet the Elsick project is one of the first of its kind of its scale.
“Rather than housebuilders building a new housing estate then thinking after it would be nice to have high speed broadband in there, we have a conversation early with them so the basic infrastructure – the ducting and so on – is there and makes it easy to do,” explains Mr Dick.
“Traditionally if housing is being built, we will pay the builder to put the ducting in for us. If we do it the right way, for high speed services, it means not digging up streets later.
“It’s a no brainer. But some developers just don’t do it.”
He points out that Hampshire Council has set out rules for housebuilders that they now have to work with BT or other infrastructure providers in this manner
“It is a good idea,” says Mr Dick. “I don’t know anybody who disagrees with this
“The hard part is creating the legislation. But if a local authority in England can do it, a local authority anywhere can do it.”
Connecting the Western Isles as well as Orkey and Sheltand is another order of magnitude altogether.
A map of BT’s Highlands and Islands Submarine Cable System shows how Ullapool connects to Lewis, how Skye connects to Benbecula and North Uist to Harris. There are 18 of these cables in all. Now the challenge is to get people using them. ”
He sees how lives in Scotland’s remotest areas can be changed by “digital inclusion”, where older people and families can access healthcare via tablets, for example.
“We are only on the start of this journey where we deliver services such as healthcare different,” he says.
“The Highlands geography is on a different scale, but the opportunity for digital there is phenomenally important. Critical,I think.”