WiMax Network For Clackmannanshire Approved

A WiMax network is set to connect rural residents in a small Scottish county to the Internet, after a grant was given by the Scottish Parliament. Clackmannanshire (which is often abbreviated to Clacks) is a region bordering Perth and Kinross, Stirling and Fife in Scotland. It is Scotland’s smallest historic county, with the nickname ‘The Wee County.

The Clackmannanshire Council was given the grant, worth £200,000, by the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Broadband Challenge Fund which is designed to help rural areas gain access to faster broadband services.

Wee County Gets WiMax

The Clackmannanshire Council grant will allow it to install a WiMax network, for commercial services, that is capable of delivering broadband download speeds of up to 20Mbps (2Mbps minimum) for the ‘not-spot’ areas of the Forth Valley.

According to the Clackmannanshire Council, the network will cover the communities of Tillicoultry, Alva East, Alloa West, Bandeath, Throsk, South Alloa, Cambusbarron and parts of rural south west Stirling.

However it should be noted that as this project is a pilot, the exact reach of the signal will not be known until the equipment is in place, but the commissioning and purchase of equipment is beginning in the new year. The network should be in operation by the Spring.

“The beauty of the solution is that it’s not limited just to businesses, householders in the surrounding communities will also benefit,” said Peter Sunderland, Chair of the Forth Valley and Lomond Leader Group.

“I’m delighted that our bid has been recognised as a strong one and that we’ve got the funding to take this forward,” said Councillor Eddie Carrick, portfolio holder for sustainability. “Clackmannanshire has a great transport infrastructure that puts it at the centre of Scottish business. Now we can build an electronic infrastructure to match that.”

The pilot was one of only five bids in Scotland to be approved by the Scottish Parliament last Friday.

Rural Broadband

The project will apparently be managed by Clackmannanshire Council, which has already undertaken some WiMax equipment trials in Alloa. The pilot will focus on the Bandeath Industrial Estate Stirling, Touch Business Centre Stirling, Alloa West Business Centre, and businesses located along the Hillfoots area of Clackmannanshire.

The arrival of high speed broadband in the region has been welcomed by businesses, which have been lobbying for fast and consistent access to the internet.

“As the longest serving tenant and largest internet user in the Touch Business Centre, Neverfail Group is delighted with this result.” said Ken Anton, director of engineering support at Neverfail.

WiMax Rarity

WiMax networks in the UK are relatively few and far between.

Freedom4 (formerly Pipex Wireless) launched a WiMax network in Milton Keynes back in December 2007. It also has a WiMax network in Stratford upon Avon. But, in June this year, Freedom4’s WiMAX spectrum licence in Great Britain was sold to UK Broadband for £12.5 million.

The other British WiMax licence holder is UK Broadband (a wholly owned subsidiary of PCCW – Pacific Century CyberWorks).

The small presence of WiMax networks in the UK is in stark contrast to the United States, where WiMax networks are being rolled out in major cities, mostly thanks to Sprint and the WiMAX technology from Clearwire.