FAQs

Community first …

At our presentations and in communication over the months, we have explained that our service is different from every other broadband provider: it is a bold statement, but true.

Why are we different?

StrathspeyNow is borne out of more than five years of research and development following our appointment at consultants on the Scottish Government & Digital Scotland’s Digital Towns Programme 2017-18. In that programme, Grantown was one of around 40 towns across Scotland who sought advice on how the community might better use of ‘digital’.

Long story short! Our findings review (2018) made recommendations for a new model that would deliver the benefits sought by those communities. We were tasked with finding a demonstration project to prove our concept. We did – Cupar in Fife. It was put to the test and, in a ballot of businesses in 2019, it was voted through to deliver a five year term as Scotland and the UK’s only Digital Improvement District.

Today, that project is delivering managed, integrated digital communication in support of multiple audiences – businesses, residents, visitors, community groups, culture & tourism bodies, education and training providers, environmental projects, health & social care partnership … all working together to aid economic development and sustainability. The delivery is award-winning and much more can be read via our last annual report.

Can that be done again? There is no political will or appetite to do so and the project – which took close to 100 weeks to the ballot – would have stopped had the businesses voted against it. The timescales are too long, the risks are too great … and the reliance on a single sector to pay for all services is too one-sided.

So we are looking at different funding models to deliver the same community benefit – albeit in a scale that reflects the place and community as well as the level of support our network receives. The more who use it, the more we will be able to deliver.

Destination Digital is a collaboration of businesses. We are very grateful to the Grantown Society for their support to date. The Society has been a key driver in this project and they have assisted in the research that is helping us to develop what we see as a unique model – a gigabit-capable broadband network, delivered wirelessly, that will not only offer customers superfast, ultrafast, hyperfast and gigabit speeds of connectivity but will also reinvest in the Strathspey community.

Alongside our network, we will look to deliver managed, integrated digital communication and services that will support multiple audiences across Strathspey – all akin to our Cupar initiative … businesses, community groups, culture & tourism, education & training, environmental projects as well as wellbeing support.

Through our managed channels we will share relevant and engaging content with our growing audience of residents and visitors. The scale of that support will be determined 100% by the numbers signing up to the service: the more who sign-up, the more we will be able to deliver.

We have started that ball rolling: you can find us on Facebook and on Instagram.

StrathspeyNow is your community’s network.

 

Up is the new Down …

For more than a decade, broadband offerings have been defined by their download speeds – with 30MB per second deemed as ‘superfast’. The unprecedented times of recent years have taught us that we all need more access to better connectivity. As more people create greater levels of content for sharing, the need for improved upload speeds increases.

And so ‘superfast’ will be our basic offering and we won’t just focus on download speeds. Our packages will offer significantly higher speeds ensuring whatever download speed you buy, we will provide a third of that speed as the upload: 30MB down? 10MB up. Need 60MB download? We’ll provide it with 20MB upload … and so on across all our StrathspeyNow packages.

 

Environmentally friendly …

We work with wireless delivery. Anchored to fibre at key points, our gigabit-capable broadband is then delivered wirelessly with minimal environmental disruption.

Gone are the needs for costly, time-consuming digging of roads, streets, pathways and driveways. Our service means we can connect more people more swiftly – all with a lower impact on our environment.

As much of the area we are covering falls within the National Park, that is a real benefit to all.

Our wireless delivery also means that we do not rely on existing phone lines. We can offer phone services where your existing phone handset is connected to our network. Please ask for more information when making your enquiry.