Our Local Development Officer is working to arrange satellite Broadband for Colonsay within the next 18 months or so, which is very encouraging.  As it happens, one local business is struggling very badly – with no less than five Broadband connections and BT bills of over £3,800 p.a. the connections are frequently either down or so far below 0.5kb as to actually be unmeasurable.  It has become impossible to operate a business on this basis, so whilst maintaining the BT contracts the owners have arranged to install satellite broadband through an independent supplier.  They have selected Satellite Internet from BeyonDSL and have signed up for one year on a basic package; George Leppard has kindly agreed to install the equipment and full details will be published here as to the progress and success of the plan.
To put this in context, readers will be shocked to know that even the Service Point in Colonsay has had no effective Broadband since September 2014, almost totally crippling the office.  In fact, even the telephones were out for weeks on end (still out at time of writing), so that the staff could not even have the satisfaction of continuing to complain to the IT department of Argyll & Bute Council, who are the commissioning agents and thereby responsible for the services.  Other people affected by the appalling situation include those who are concerned with lifeline services, not least our doctors out on call and vulnerable persons at home.