COMMERCIAL FOCUS: 2017 - the year Scotland’s digital transformation accelerated at gigabit speed

2017 has marked a turning point for digital policy across the UK. Thanks to a series of key developments – largely linked to industry influence and policy-making at both Scottish and UK-wide levels – our digital capabilities have been brought into the spotlight, heralding fresh advocacy for a future lit by full-fibre.

Throughout this year, I have talked a lot about Scotland’s digital future and CityFibre’s campaign to see the country’s constrained, Victorian-age copper infrastructure consigned to the history books and replaced with ubiquitous full-fibre connectivity as standard.

At the moment, mainland Europe is leaving the UK in the dust when it comes to full-fibre deployment. Given the correlation between connectivity and prosperity, as well as the economic challenges that lie ahead post-Brexit, it’s clear burying our heads in the sand and ‘making do’ with our existing infrastructure isn’t an option.

Scotland’s reputation as a leader in the technology sector is on the rise but we can only sustain this by giving our businesses and their employees everything they need to digitally thrive in the information age. According to the recent Scotland’s Digital Technologies report (published by Skills Development Scotland and the Digital Technologies Skills Group), the tech sector is predicted to grow twice as fast as the Scottish economy in its entirety over the next seven years.

What’s more, technology is forecast to be the fastest growing sector of Scotland’s economy by 2024. For an ambitious nation, brimming with determination and entrepreneurial spirit and a growing roster of digital successes such as SkyScanner, Rockstar North and CodeBase, our request is simple – to be successful, Scotland’s future must be fuelled by fibre.

Laying full-fibre foundations
And now, as we prepare for the year ahead, we can see our vision taking shape thanks to exciting milestones in our Gigabit City movement, as well as important shifts in government policy.

In Scotland, CityFibre started the year with the announcement of our fourth Scottish Gigabit City – historic Stirling. The city joined Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow in having its digital capabilities transformed and future-proofed with a brand new full-fibre network capable of delivering ultrafast speeds, near unlimited bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and reliability that is second to none.

And, while we were moving full steam ahead with our own Gigabit City roll-out, the nation’s policy makers were busy preparing a series of complementary schemes with the aim of boosting the efforts being made to accelerate the UK’s digital transformation at all levels – public sector, business and at home.

These schemes included the Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund (DIFF) – a £400m match-funded pot which was set up to actively incentivise and therefore, fast-track the wide-scale deployment of full-fibre in the UK by alternative providers.

Beyond Westminster, Scotland has also been leading the charge for digital deployment at a geographical level by building on the UK’s 95 per cent coverage target. Announced in 2016 with consultations taking place throughout this year, the ‘Reaching 100%’ initiative (R100) is a major coup for Scotland – one that aims to provide next-generation broadband access to all premises in Scotland.

It’s clear, therefore, that the stars (and nations) are aligned in their mission to create a full-fibre future. As well as benefiting from the long-term vision behind R100, Aberdeen became one of the first cities to qualify for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) new Gigabit Broadband voucher scheme just last month, giving small and medium-sized businesses the opportunity to secure funding to cover the installation of a full-fibre broadband connection.

This will not only give city businesses access to faster speeds – it will future-proof their connectivity requirements, boost productivity and provide the competitive edge they need to thrive for decades to come.

Driving the march to build Gigabit Britain
But with or without policy support, CityFibre’s mission to build Gigabit Britain will itself receive a Gigabit boost in 2018. This year we successfully raised £200m in private investment and announced our move into the residential market.

This new funding will enable us to accelerate our movement into new Scottish cities as well as pave the way for large scale Fibre-To-The-Home deployment.

As part of this, we acquired leading connectivity wholesaler Entanet, giving its 1500 channel partners access to our networks, driving uptake of full-fibre connectivity on a much greater scale.

And we didn’t stop there. In November, we announced a major strategic partnership with Vodafone to deliver ultrafast full-fibre broadband to up to five million UK homes and businesses by 2025.

This is a significant step in ensuring entire communities reap the rewards of next-generation technology and will account for 50 percent of the government’s target to connect 10 million premises across the UK to full-fibre by 2025.

Together, the events that occurred over the course of 2017 staged a huge leap forward for our digital capabilities and our ambition for Scotland and the UK as a whole to realise its full digital potential.
We have now built and invested in 42 Gigabit Cities UK-wide with the ambition to grow this to 50 by 2020.

I’m proud that CityFibre has been a driving force in positioning Scotland for a bright future in the digital age. For the first time we can start a new year feeling truly optimistic about our digital connectivity as we look forward to embracing the digital age with full-fibre foundations.
Roll on 2018!