The top issue of the Community Action Plan was that of broadband provision in the Alvah and Forglen Area. The community council has been progressing this as follows:
1. Public meeting on Broadband
A meeting was held on 25th July 2016 which had a good turnout.
Photos of the meeting can be seen on our Facebook page
The presentation slides (complete with full notes and website links) from the Broadband meeting are available for download. To view them you need either Microsoft Office Powerpoint, the free Windows Powerpoint viewer available for download from : https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=13 or an equivalent for Android or iOS phones and tablets.
Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband presentation (6.5MB download)
Community Broadband Scotland intro presentation (1.5MB download)
2. A questionnaire was sent to every household and business in the area
Background information
AFCC Community Broadband survey
3. Submission to the Scottish Government
The Community Council made a submission to the Scottish Government Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee on the issue of fast broadband provision in the Alvah and Forglen area.
AFCC submission to SG
4. Follow up information on questionnaire results
Questionnaire results
5. Report to Community Broadband Scotland
AFCC feasibility study (6MB download)
Additionally Alvah and Forglen Community Council has been in contact with Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB), Community Broadband Scotland (CBS) and BT Openreach. There have been articles on the issue in the Banffie and The Turiff Advertiser.
2018
The Scottish Government issued a report called R100 which shows how the Government intends to provide superfast broadband to the 5% of Scotland that has not been included in the fibre rollout.
Reaching 100 superfast broadband
Scotland commit 600m 100 coverage 30mbps broadband
In September 2018 Audit Scotland issued a progress report on R100 Superfast broadband for Scotland Further progress update
2019
Unfortunately the dates for implementation of R100 have slipped and are becoming later and later. June 2019 news is that “contracts for the £600m Reaching 100% (R100) superfast broadband project won’t now be signed until the “end of the year,” which suggests that the rollout may be unable to complete by the end of 2021” R100 broadband contract delayed until end of 2019
2020
R100 is the project to roll out superfast broadband to those areas not included in the DSSB programme.
The contract for R100 was placed with BT. The programme was divided into three lots – South, Central and North. Alvah and Forglen are in the North Lot.
Unfortunately there was a delay in placing the North Lot and it was only placed in December 2020.
Alvah and Forglen Community Council is in regular contact with the R100 teams and awaits the detailed plan for our area.
R100 North of Scotland Press Release
2021
The Scottish Government R100 broadband program has informed the community council that at least 188 out of the approx 300 properties in Alvah and Forglen will be getting a minimum of 30Mbps broadband connection from the planned rollout in the north east Scotland area. However this will not be until after the end of 2021.
2022
The R100 broadband program has informed the community council that at least 188 out of the approx 300 properties in Alvah and Forglen will be getting gigabit Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) broadband connection from the planned rollout in the north east Scotland area. However this will not be until 2025 or 2026. The remainder of the properties will be eligible for up to a £5000 subsidy towards costs in making their own broadband provisions.
You can check whether your individual property will be covered by the superfast broadband rollout by using the property checker website
https://www.scotlandsuperfast.com/r100-programme/check-my-address/
2024
Current known possible fibre broadband connection dates below.
2025: for properties connected to Aberchirder exchange.
2026: for properties connected to Turriff exchange
2027: for properties connected to Banff, Portsoy or Eden exchanges.
These dates are between 4 to 6 years later than the originally promised high speed broadband availability date of end of 2021. R100 project, which aspires to make “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) available to 100% of the country by the end of 2021 (March 2022 as a financial year).. Scotland names isp bidders for R100 superfast broadband rollout
Alvah and Forglen Community Council 