We won the Race to Infinity in December 2010 for the Innerleithen exchange – the only Scottish town to do so. The implementation is almost complete with some delay on the Exchange Only lines within Innerleithen. Traquair and Glen and other remote locations haven’t been done however it is hoped that they will be covered by the South of Scotland BDUK roll-out.
Cardrona has the highest take-up of superfast in the UK with over 85% and rising.
We’ve left the history of the project up here for interet
BT Superfast Broadband 30/11/12
At a time when organisations around the UK are seeking investment partners to bring super-fast technologies to their areas and give them a competitive edge, Innerleithen has shot straight to the forefront of Digital Britain making them the best connected community in Scotland. BT is investing thousands of man hours in this upgrade and installing 112 kilometres of fibre to give Innerleithen one of the highest percentages of fibre coverage to be found anywhere in the UK.
99.4% of households and businesses in Innerleithen will see an increase in speed, while 96.4% will have speeds topping 15Mbps. 3% will receive between 2Mbps and 15Mbps. The 0.6% represents 11 premises in remote locations towards the very North of the district. And fibre speeds are set to get even faster next year with FTTC roughly doubling from up to 40Mbps to up to 80Mbps and FTTP soaring to up to 300Mbps. Innerleithen will not only benefit from fibre to the cabinet super-fast broadband (FTTC) – the type that is currently being rolled out inScotland– but will be the first inScotlandfor fibre to the premises super-fast broadband (FTTP) which boasts even faster speeds.
Innerleithen was the only Scottish town to win BT’s Race to Infinity – aUKwide competition for Superfast Broadband.
Openreach, BT’s local network division, is currently carrying out overnight engineering works in the district and is on track to be ready to accept orders for super-fast broadband services in Innerleithen from March 2012.
For further information please contact the BT Scotland press office on 0800 085 0660 or locally Brian McCrow, Community Campaign Organiser,1 Cardrona Way,CardronaEH45 9LD01896 833188, 07712 841768, brian@mccrow.co.uk
Technical notes:
- Openreach will lay large fibre pipes along the A72 from Innerleithen to the Peebles exchange where the back haul equipment will be installed with links up toEdinburghand thence into theUKbroadband networks. This fibre cable will be “squirted” down the existing duct along the A72 however the engineers may be required to dig up the ground to clear the blockage. This work will be carried out at night to minimise any traffic disruption.
- The Innerleithen exchange will not be involved in this Superfast Broadband implementation and service but will continue for the existing phone and slow broadband services. Properties within Innerleithen who are currently directly connected to the Innerleithen exchange will have a new direct connection via FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) from the Peebles exchange. These are mainly along the High Street and will require a physical fibre connection to be made into their premises. There will be some disruption along the High Street while the fibre cable is laid but this will be minimised as far as possible by flexible working hours.
- Other properties are currently connected via a street cabinet and will not require any connection into their premises as it will continue to be via the existing copper line. However, a new fibre termination cabinet will be installed alongside the existing street cabinet in order to link the new fibre to the existing copper lines. These will require planning approval and your Community Council will ensure that they fit well within the street.
- Cardrona will take fibre links from the A72 fibre cable to the new street cabinet next to the existing copper cabinet across from the A72. This will cover all of the properties built after 1999. BT have employed another first in this implementation by switching other properties in the Cardrona area onto this cabinet so they will enjoy faster speeds than if they remained connected to their existing street cabinet, which is further away from their properties. All Cardrona properties will enjoy greater than 15Mbps.
- The final connection to Superfast Broadband will not be automatic as users have to sign up either with BT Retail or another ISP. It is suggested that users contact their ISP to determine if they will commit to putting equipment in the Peebles exchange in support of Superfast Broadband.
- As any example of the costs of Superfast Broadband check with this BT Retail price – www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=25633&s_cid=con_ppc_maxus_vidZ59_Broadband&vendorid=Z473&sissr=1
- Superfast Broadband should open up possibilities for extra facilities such as BT Vision – www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=25634&s_cid=con_ppc_maxus_vidSP4_Vision&vendorid=SP4&sissr=1
- Roll-out schedule:
Orders for Superfast Broadband can be placed before the end of March 2012
The A72 spine and FTTC cabinets will be installed December 2011 to March 2012
FTTP for 10% of the Innerleithen properties, December 2011 till July 2012
As with all implementation it is best to place orders as early as possible so that plans and equipment orders can be finalised in time for your personal service requirements.
Cardrona Village Association 
what speeds do you get a glen road estate cottages thinking of moving there
hoepfully at least 2,5 meg its says 0.75 cant live with that esp for gameing for sons xbox
Hi Darren. Sorry, no idea off the top of my head. Have you asked any potential neighbours? Someone else on the forum might know. Thanks. Dom
It would be best to put the phone number into the BT Broadband web site and they’ll give you the current speed. Can you give me the post code and phone no. for the property as I don’t know where it is. I’m meeting in the 2 weeks with the chap responsible for the South of Scotland Broadband implementation so can check the future speed with him.
Thanks Brian, my name is Claire Grant. Email clairegrant_917@hotmail.co.uk tel no 01896490243. Thanks!
I think you need to get in touch with BT we tried others but they didn’t work – hanging all the time. We have only had broadband for about 6 months through BT infinity and it’s really good. You should be able to get that.
we have just moved to Cardrona in December 2013, and are baffled by all this talk of ‘highest take-up’ of fibre broadband – every provider we have called says it is not available here. Our speed is 1Mb at best. Can anyone advise? Was it a limited number of households? Does it actually exist?
Hi Liz we have just moved to Cardrona in November and don’t seem to be getting anywhere with our broadband. We are currently with Sky and have a speed of 0.9Mb, when I called Sky they actually told me to switch providers. However when I called BT they told me that the high speed line should be in by the end of Jan 2014 and so I should call back then as there was nothing that they could do in the mean time.
Have you gotten anywhere with this yet? It’s very frustrating!
Hi Claire – yes, seems we are in the same boat. Have tried all providers, most of them don’t know what’s going on, we were told originally 15 Jan, then on 15 Jan were told 12 Feb. Called BT yet again to ask if we could have a different phone number, if this would solve it, but no, it’s the physical line from the house to the box apparently. It seems our line goes to a cabinet which does not have fibre, so yours probably is in the same one. Seems extremely unfair. We were specifically told that we could get fibre here, which influenced our decision to rent at Cardrona. At least we can leave in a few months.
We are about to give up on the fibre, it’s like bashing your head against a wall having to explain it to these people time after time…. but if I get any news I will post it here.
Claire, Please email me your tel no , address and email. I will add your name to the other 3 who have told me they can’t get Superfast. I am in contact with BT and they are planning to upgrade the fibre cabinet just as you come off the A72 towards Cardrona. Unfortunately this may take some months to come to fruition however I am about to escalate this within BT so your details will help.
If you give me your email, tel no and address I can add them to the list I’ve sent to BT. They are planning an upgrade for the cabinet which is located just off the A72 heading into Cardrona. It may take some months to implement but I’ll put some pressure on them.
In fact we’ll see more of these engineers as they are laying the fibre cable from Peebles through to Innerleithen from 11pm to avoid unnecessary traffic disruptions.
At that time they were probably dealing with a fault. I’ll ask the bosses on Monday,
There were two very large BT openreach vans on the Horsburgh Straight at the opening to Cardrona last night (Thursday 24th) around 11p.m.
Could this be progress?