The boss of a Highlands broadband provider is keen to level the playing field for people in rural locations.
Gavin Rodgers, of Highland Broadband, aims to give the “entirety of the Highlands” a faster full-fibre option within three years.
The business already provides services in 14 locations across the region, including Alness, Evanton, Tain and Invergordon.
Mr Rodgers is the chief executive of parent company Lothian Broadband (LBN), which acquired the Highland business three years ago.
Financial backers include the Scottish National Investments Bank and other private investors.
Highland Broadband fibre plans
Mr Rodgers said poor broadband speeds throughout Scotland prompted the decision to expand the firm’s services in the north.
He added: “I started with LBN in 2021 and helped it to evolve from a fixed wireless to a fibre business.
“After seeing success we started to look for the next greatest need and it became obvious to us it was the Highlands.
“Between Evanton and Helmsdale only 0.14% of properties had access to a gigabit (GB) network. We have the power to change that.
“We offer a 2.5GB per second service – our network is faster than any device you can connect to it.”
Mr Rodgers said the network is costing tens of millions of pounds to roll out and has had to contend with geographical challenges.
He added: “When looking at the Highlands we knew the geography might cause some problems.
“However, we chose to accept the challenge because we knew connectivity would be a huge economic enabler for the area.
“We’re responsible for around 200 jobs in the Highlands, whether it be those we employ or people we’ve contracted in to help.
“There’s also a lot of secondary issues. Some areas have no gas mains, meaning the footways can be in a poor state and costly to repair.”
‘If you don’t have fibre yet, you’re in our plans’
The company will expand further across the Highlands in the next three years, Mr Rodgers said, adding: “Looking long term, we want to expand.
“I regularly speak to Maree Todd (SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) and Jamie Stone (Lib Dem MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) about it and they’re very onboard.
“If you don’t have fibre in the Highlands yet – you’re in our plans over the next three years.
“The opportunity is there for us to become the supplier of choice throughout the Highlands.”
Mr Rodgers believes the firm won’t find it difficult to compete with other household names.
Monthly prices currently range from £34.99 for its 100 megabyte (MB) per second service to £74.99 for its 2.5GBps offering.
Mr Rodgers added: “We’re targeting areas which don’t already have access to full fibre.
“Then, it’s about making the price right – just because it’s better than other services doesn’t mean it should be double the price.
“We tend to look at competitors such as BT when deciding our price. Presentation to people is also a big factor.
“If you understand what’s on offer, you are more likely to go for it so it’s key we get our message across concisely.
“I like to see us as a product rather than a service. It doesn’t matter how good your customer support is if the product doesn’t work, so we make sure we get that right.”
CEO overwhelmed by ‘accommodating communities’
Mr Rodgers said he understood why people may get frustrated by disruptions while cables are being installed, such as closing footpaths and putting in traffic restrictions.
But works to date have had local support, with communities “very accommodating”, he added.
Mr Rodgers continued: “Deploying the infrastructure can cause a lot of issues but everyone has been really understanding.
“We’re being received really positively and can see that our customers throughout the highlands customers use twice the national average of data.
“So much so that we’ve had to upgrade our transit solutions twice within the last 12 months and are about to commission the first 100GB transit pipe in the Highlands.”
Conversation