Evaluation of the Aberfoyle Wireless Satellite Broadband Project: final report

The Aberfoyle Broadband Community’s (ABC) Wireless Satellite Broadband project aimed to provide broadband connectivity to businesses in the Aberfoyle area at an affordable cost. The evaluation aimed to assess the effectiveness of the project, the performance of the project against its original objectives and the impact the programme has had on participating individuals and businesses. It also highlighted the key learning points from the project and made recommendations for improvements, if this project were rolled out to other communities.

The methodology consisted of a review of all relevant project documents, and interviews with participating businesses, ABC, the suppliers, SE Broadband for Scotland Manager, the SEFV Director of Strategic Resources, the e-business manager, and the e-business advisor.

Concludes that the project has been successful, has addressed market failure, and the system works well most of the time. Wireless technology has brought environmental benefits. The project enabled businesses to use the internet more and do more e-business. Significant positive publicity was generated by the project. Concludes that the project is able to be self-sustaining, although the parameters of the project will change if the Aberfoyle exchange is ADSL enabled.

Recommends that the Aberfoyle model should not be rolled out to other communities, unless they have a highly dedicated team with strong technical and business skills. Advises that ABC should: encourage uptake from most potential users; reduce their installation charges to the current market rate; conduct an evaluation of needs and site survey before installation; offer a session with the e-business advisor after installation; ask suppliers to investigate the contention issues and activate the wireless hotspot in the village; and contract with and purchase more time input from the Project Manager, the suppliers and the e-business advisor.