THE part of Lewis I live in is well into its third week of having no wifi connection due to faults in an EE mast for which parts must apparently come from some distant land. The old-fashioned idea of keeping parts in the country, far less on an island, does not seem to have occurred.

The mast is also supposed to be part of an emergency services network so let’s hope there are no emergencies. Never mind. Compared to part of the island of Scalpay, which lost its connection for two months, I suppose we can (at this point) count ourselves fortunate. In that case, BT Openreach were responsible.

I know others can pitch in with tales of woe from many parts of rural – and maybe even urban – Scotland. For the great majority, who receive a consistent connection to internet and mobile phone networks, this may not be an issue. Some may even say, well, what do you expect if you choose to live in these places?

That is not, however, official policy. For years, connectivity through new technologies has been held up as the holy grail for allowing people to work from the more peripheral parts of Scotland. When the service collapses, it becomes apparent how dependent we have become by relying upon that offer.

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The percentages game is pernicious. Government press releases boast of 90 or 95 per cent coverage, under this or that scheme – there are plenty of them. That is no consolation if you happen to be among the 10 or five per cent. In numerical terms, even five per cent of the Scottish population translates into more than a quarter million people, which makes the headline less impressive.

There is also great difficulty in pinning down who is responsible for what. Digital connectivity is a battlefield on which UK and Scottish Governments like to compete, at least when the news is good. Frankly, nobody cares who is paying these hundreds of millions since ultimately they come from the same pot, so please work together to create a single, deliverable commitment.

Last August, the Scottish Government announced a Voucher Scheme to “provide funding of up to £5,000 to help homes and businesses not in scope of either Reaching 100% (R100) contracts or planned commercial investment to obtain superfast broadband where providers may not ordinarily go”

Personally, I would not have a clue what to do with a voucher. It seems unlikely that if connectivity costs have led to a community being left outside the “superfast broadband” vision, a handful of vouchers will lure in the telecom behemoths.

Our current predicament caused me to look at the EE website where I found a proud intimation that they will expand 4G in more than 500 rural areas of the UK in 2021 to improve rural connectivity as part of something called the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme. Scotland accounts for 132 of these.

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EE explain: “SRN is a programme between the UK’s four mobile network operators and Government to extend 4G coverage to 95% of the UK’s geography by the middle of this decade. The upgrades fall under the first phase of the Shared Rural Network, where EE will invest to significantly reduce ‘partial not-spots’ by 2024”.

So is R100 part of SRN or something different? If the former, could the two concepts not be joined up in the press releases of both governments? Could they then work together to ensure delivery and a more satisfactory way of filling in the gaps than handing out vouchers, whether they are signed by Boris Johnson or Nicola Sturgeon?

At one point in my inquiries, I was advised to consult the Scottish Futures Trust, which is the body that manages the SNP version of the Private Finance Initiative. This was a completely new one on me (and remember I only wanted a mast fixed). What on earth did they have to do with it? Having travelled far enough to find a signal, I Googled to discover.

From the SFT website, I learned: “Working with key partners, we’ve taken the lead to develop a roadmap to support the Scottish Government’s Digital Strategy. Building on this roadmap, our team’s focus is moving towards developing a programme…”. The ‘strategy” link took me direct to an uplifting message from Derek Mackay in 2017. Nice to know our Futures Trust is keeping up.

Anyway, Michael Gove was in Lewis yesterday. To his credit, he took the trouble to divert here following a plea from the leader of the local authority for UK Government help over ferries and other connectivity issues. Broadband could have been added to the list.

I heard him on Good Morning Scotland speaking from Stornoway – an opportunity to challenge a senior UK Minister about distinctively island issues. However, “interviewed” would be the wrong word – rather a pastiche of incoherent barbs on matters entirely unrelated to anything he was there to discuss. It was disrespectful to these issues and the place he was speaking from.

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The problems that brought him to the Western Isles were of not the slightest interest to BBC Scotland – only the opportunity to “have a go” because he was anywhere in Scotland. But then – ferries, planes, broadband – who cares about the nitty-gritty which only affects a few per cent, at a safe distance from Holyrood and Pacific Quay?

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