Broadband Internet
January 2009
Scotnet will update existing customers to 2Mb download speed free of charge. For those wanting up to 8Mbs, there will be a few pounds more to pay.
Martin: I have found the 8Mbs connection to be consistent and reliable, with speeds reaching 6Mbs. Excellent customer and technical support from Inverness, as always.
June 2008
ADSL Max has, finally, arrived. The first few weeks were rocky, but it has settled in and BT customers have stable download speeds of up to 8Mbs, typically 4–5Mbs.
We have no information on AOL and are awaiting an update from Scotnet regarding their plans.
It seems unlikely that other ISPs such as Tiscali, TalkTalk, Virgin or PlusNet will be taking advantage of Local Loop Unbundling to provide any service in our small community.
Please note: BT is the only ISP providing this speed at the moment, but potential new customers should be aware that BT support has not shown itself to be capable of responding quickly to downtime. BT users have been the last to be reconnected after problems, in some cases lasting weeks.
December 2007
ADSL Max for Plockton has now been scheduled for January 2008 (indicative). Here is the full schedule for the exchanges to be upgraded.
November 2007
ADSL Max for Plockton has been set back to first quarter 2008.
August 2007
Plockton is scheduled to receive the upgrade in November 2007.
April 2007
Against our expectation, we are pleased to let you know that the forthcoming upgrade in Plockton will not be for more Exchange Activate ports, but a move to full platform ADSL — ADSL Max (see below).
This will give customers a faster connection, a greater choice of ISP, and access to the full range of services available to urban areas, including internet/telephone 'bundles'.
This page at the Scottish Executive website has the list of the rural communities in line for the upgrade.
April 2007
It has been announced recently by the Scottish Executive that funds will be availabe to upgrade/expand twenty rural communities currently experiencing capacity problems with Exchange Activate ADSL broadband.
Plockton is on the list and we expect that everyone currently hoping to move up to broadband will be able to so.
We do not have a timescale yet, or even what type of upgrade will be done. While more Exchange Activate ports would be welcome, we would hope that the opportunity will be taken to bring Plockton and other rural communities up to broadband speeds as experienced elsewhere, including Kyle, in other words, ADSL Max.
Exchange Activate is a 'low-cost' way of connecting rural communities to the broadband network. It is limited to a (theoretical) speed of 512Kb download.
ADSL Max is the current technology for larger exchanges and promises up to 8Mb download (revised down to 5Mb by OFTEL after misleading advertising) and generally gives 2–4Mb download.
March 2007
The introduction of broadband Internet access in Plockton gave customers the choice of three Internet Service Providers — Scotnet, BT and AOL. Given the nature of our broadband (Exchange Activate), the number of ports available was limited — Scotnet took the most, followed by BT and a handful to AOL.
Until the start of this year, there were sufficient ports, but now all ISPs have used their quota, and no more broadband connections can be made in the short-term future.
In addition, a number of potential broadband customers were frustrated by BT, whose systems reported wrong information on the number of ports available and the type of broadband in Plockton.
Some of these were able to be connected by Scotnet, and, in one case, by AOL.
But now all the three ISPs' quota of ports has been used, and it remains to be seen what happens next.
There is a full account of how Plockton achieved broadband here.
