Shetland MSP Tavish Scott will head to the west coast island of Mull today to learn how communities there have managed to get connected to superfast broadband while similar sized villages in Shetland have not.
He said millions of pounds of public money have been spent on the roll-out of high speed broadband but, so far, only 4,000 premises in Shetland have been linked up to the fibre cable network.
Mr Scott wants the Scottish Government to spend public money on connecting the hardest to reach areas first – such as Unst, Yell and Northmavine.
As part of an investigation of the Scottish Parliament’s audit committee, Mr Scott is meeting with community owned broadband service GigaMull.
GigaMull has developed its own service to help island communities in Argyll after encountering similar limitations than communities in Shetland.
The current Highlands and Islands-wide roll-out of superfast broadband has been made possible through a £126million contribution from the Scottish Government.
By the end of the programme 84% of premises in the Highlands and 76% of customers in Shetland should be able to access speeds of up to 80Mbps, meaning that one in four households and businesses in Shetland are left behind.
Mr Scott said: “I want to understand how the Argyll islands have built their own community owned broadband service.
“There must be lessons for the north isles of Shetland, Northmavine and other areas.
“GigaMull has worked successfully with BT, HIE and Community Broadband Scotland to build their network helping local households and businesses obtain a faster broadband service.
“I want to see if their experience can help the outlying areas of Shetland.”
Last week, HIE confirmed that work of enabling eleven further communities in Shetland to access superfast broadband will commence over the next few weeks.