Rural Broadband Funding Available

Rural communities across the Highlands are being encouraged to put forward bids for a share of million Euro fund that could bring enhanced Broadband to their area including improved coverage and faster connections. Following an announcement last week by the Scottish Government that funding was now available, The Highland Leader Programme  is encouraging interested communities [...]

Pathfinder North Rollout Completed

The rollout of the £70m high-speed Pathfinder North network across the Scottish Highlands and Islands was completed today (Monday 21st December 2009). Cromarty Primary School in the Highland Council area was the last of 800 sites to be connected, along with Shapinsay Primary School which also signaled the completion of the project in Orkney. Pathfinder [...]

Moray Council All Live

Crossroads Primary School in Moray, completes the implementation phase of Pathfinder North for Moray Council. The school was connected today (Friday 18th December 2009).

Shetland Fully Connected

The next area to be fully connected on the Pathfinder North network is Shetland Islands Council, with Cunningsburgh Primary School being the last site to be made live today (Friday 18 December 2009). This completes the rollout of the 75 sites on Shetland.

Argyll and Bute Connected

Argyll and Bute has become the first Council area to be fully connected under an innovative high speed broadband initiative. The £70million Pathfinder North scheme, which began in May 2007 and is part-funded by the Scottish Government, aims to implement a future-proof broadband network, provided by Cable&Wireless business THUS, across five Highlands and Islands local [...]

700+ Sites Connected

Below 100, and progress in connecting the final few sites in the Pathfinder North rollout continues. Rosehall Primary in the Highland Council area was our 700th connected site in the broadband rollout across the Highlands and Islands.  The network is now 88% complete. As of 15 September 2009, 702 sites have been connected, leaving 99 [...]

Taynuilt Primary Counts in 600

Taynuilt Primary School in Argyll and Bute became the 600th connected site in the Pathfinder North broadband rollout. The school was connected with a 8Mb broadband connection on Thursday 28th May. The rollout elsewhere is as follows: Argyll and Bute: 118 sites connected (81.3%) Highland Council: 298 sites connected (66.3%) Moray Council: 89 sites connected [...]

School Opens with Pathfinder

The staff and pupils of Acharacle Primary School, Lochaber, moved into their state of the art timber school on Thursday 7 May 2009, which promises to be the most energy efficient in Scotland. Scotland’s first wholly sustainable school is home to 48 English and Gaelic Medium primary school pupils and 14 English and Gaelic Medium [...]

250 to go!

The Pathfinder North network continues to grow, with only 250 sites to be connected and 557 now live. Site are being connected with between 2Mbps and 155Mbps broadband links over our next-generation network well-ahead of BT, allowing authorities to start delivering new services for education and local government. Progress to date per Partner is as [...]

Biology with GLOW

Hundreds of pupils across Scotland have watched leading scientists perform a bird post mortem beamed live into their classrooms from East Lothian. The procedure was shown on GLOW, Scotland’s national education intranet, digitally linking schools in Scotland. The Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick was the venue for the autopsy, led by Dr Jan van [...]

iPhone A Go-Go!

The Pathfinder North website is now available on the iPhone and iPod Touch.  When you surf to the website, it will automatically change itself to an easy-to-read format for your iPhone or iPod Touch, making it easier for you to stay in touch with all the latest Pathfinder project news. And if you don’t have [...]

Welcome to our New Site

Love is in the air!  We launched the new Pathfinder North website on Valentine’s Day, with a brand new look and loads more information. You can find out more about the project, the technology and broadband, how we are progressing with the rollout, and what we will be using our high-speed broadband for.  You can [...]

Pathfinder Hits 500!

Quarff School in Shetland took the accolade of being the 500th connected Pathfinder site on Tuesday 10th February 2009. The breakthrough comes as Pathfinder officially recorded 503 sites connected across the Pathfinder Partners, which includes Argyll and Bute Council, Highland Council, Moray Council, Orkney Islands Council and Shetland Islands Council. The £70m Pathfinder North project [...]

Communities to Benefit

TWO SMALL Shetland communities are to benefit from high speed broadband thanks to a £100,000 investment by Shetland Islands’ Council. As part of a three year pilot study most householders and businesses in the village of Vidlin and the small island of Fetlar will be able to access wireless broadband with a speed of at [...]

Network Rollout Continues

The rollout of the Pathfinder North network continues to progress, with 60% of the network nearly complete. 470 of 806 sites have now been connected across the Pathfinder North Partnership.

Pathfinder Comes to Campbeltown

Campbeltown will be the next town in Argyll and Bute to benefit from the £70m Pathfinder North network, with work starting to lay the fibre optic cables this week. Pathfinder North is a partnership of six local authorities which joined forces to find a combined solution to provide broadband across the Highlands and Islands of [...]

Rollout Now 50% Complete

As of 30th October 2008, 405 Pathfinder North sites have been connected out of a total of 808 sites across the five Partner Authorities. Welcome reports have been received of the new technology providing excellent results for newly implemented services such as IP based video conferencing. Huge future cost savings have also been predicted as [...]

365 Sites Connected

There are now 365 live sites across the five Partner Authorities actively engaged with the Pathfinder North broadband implementation rollout. Argyll & Bute – 65; Highland – 158; Moray – 76; Orkney – 18; Shetland – 48

100 Sites Connected!

Pathfinder North now has 105 sites connected, including the first sites in the Argyll & Bute area. The Pathfinder North £70m project, largely funded by the Scottish Execitive, to implement high-speed broadband to the Partner Authority areas has reached a 100 connected sites before the end of 2007. There are still over 700 sites to [...]

Delays with Rollout

There are now 78 sites connected as part of the Pathfinder North network, covering Elgin and Forres in Moray; and Wick, Tain, Invergordon, Inverness and Nairn in the Highland Council area. Our supplier, THUS plc, have run into problems accessing third party radio masts to deliver the service across the Pathfinder North area. This is [...]

Pathfinder Network Grows

The Thus core network is currently being expanded with points of presence in Lochgilphead, Helensburgh, Kirkwall and Lerwick as well as local access points across the Highlands and Islands. This will facilitate the site connections to begin in Argyll & Bute, Orkney and Shetland, as well as continue in other areas of Moray and Highland. [...]

19 and Counting!

Work is well underway to get the 850 sites connected. Already we have 19 sites connected across Highland and Moray, including the main IT Centres in Inverness and Elgin. From September 2007, sites in Argyll and Bute, Orkney and Shetland will start being connected too. You can keep up-to-date on our progress and find out [...]

Pathfinder North Launched

Pupils at Crown Primary School, Inverness, are the first in the Highlands and Islands to benefit from a £70 million investment in high capacity broadband links, which will revolutionise the access and delivery of teaching methods and learning support for pupils and staff. Over the next two years, another 850 public buildings across the Highlands [...]