In Scotland, the population per square mile is lower than any other part of the UK. This causes significant issues for broadband delivery as telephone exchanges often serve large geographical areas. Users on the periphery of the catchment area can often be too far from the exchange to receive a broadband service. In many parts of the UK, plans exist to replace the copper connectivity linking telephone exchange to street cabinet with fibre optic (known as fibre to the cabinet FTTC). Fibre optic doesn't lose signal strength with distance and users benefit from a stronger signal and therefore better broadband service. Unfortunately, FTTC is technically or commercially unviable in many parts of Scotland due to the difficulty in replacing existing underground copper with fibre as lack of ducting or challenging terrain would make the construction process incredibly difficult or costly.

Users in Scotland currently unable to receive a good broadband service are therefore left with the options of dial-up, 3G, satellite or bespoke radio networks. In general, these solutions exist as a last chance alternative to ADSL but ultimately all have technical restrictions or expense which makes them second best in real terms.

BET technology is the ideal solution to these problems for many people where funding can be found to cover the initial capital cost.

At present, the most likely source of funding is the LEADER Broadband Challenge Fund.  1,000,000 Euros is currently on offer to communities wishing to improve the quality of broadband in their area. Applications for funding have now closed however several communities have applied to LEADER to deploy BET technology. A full list of successful communities will be published when available.
If you are interested in BET and are not part of an ongoing funding application, please register your interest with us as we will be lobbying all potential avenues of funding to see areas of demand served where possible.

To register your interest, please visit www.scotnet.co.uk/bet/register

The installation costs for the BET service is £1095 plus vat.

Following successful deployment of the BET technology, each end user would enter into a commercial contract with Scotnet. This would be based on the following charging model:

Service
 Monthly data transfer limit
 Monthly rental
2Mb Residential
 20Gb
 £18.00
2Mb Business
 30Gb
 £30.00
Connection Charge
£40
Additional transfer
£0.5 Per Gb/month

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Business packages include domain management, static IP addressing, website hosting and e-mail management. Residential packages include broadband access and e-mail. A monthly VAT invoice is provided with all business packages. All prices exclude VAT.

If you have any further questions regarding BET, please call 0845 270 0010 or e-mail sales@scotnet.co.uk