Tavish Scott: Broadband promises not all that they seem WE HAD debated British troops leaving Afghanistan. Or why they were there in the first place. Then I asked for another question from the secondary one class I was speaking to, and out came: "Why can't I get Skygo on my iPad at home?" The class worked out that the reason was the absence of a mobile signal. The home of that particular pupil was on the wrong side of a hill from the mobile phone relay dish. Could he link his iPad to the house wireless system? No! The house is more than three miles from the telephone exchange, so broadband speeds were too slow. It's a common story across rural Scotland. This week Highlands & Islands Enterprise and BT announced a major investment in fibre broadband. . Every newspaper and TV advert for broadband promises faster internet. Fibre optic cables do this, but it all depends on where you live. Scotland's cities have choice and speed. Economies of scale deliver better services where the market is tens of thousands of households and businesses. The market will, therefore, deliver finance to pay for fibre optic cable links and other expensive technical wizardry. But this equation does not work when one house is at the end of a three-mile single-track road served by a copper phone line installed many decades ago. It is not clear whether such locations across the Highlands & Islands will be helped by this week's announcement. Telecommunication companies explain that the economic cost of delivering these new faster services cannot be met by selling a single broadband package. People and businesses living and working in the rural and island hinterland expect to pay the same rate for broadband as they see advertised at a national level. Otherwise, such advertisements should carry a large health warning - and they do not. It is bad enough that having paid for a broadband package, the speed constrains the ability to watch a film or live football. So, given all this, government rightly has sought to improve these services in areas where investment will not happen without a public sector prod. This week's announcement suggests that 84 per cent of the Highlands & Islands population will be covered by fibre broadband. Improvements in Stornoway, Ullapool and Fort William will be excellent news. But what about people who, for example, live on the Mallaig road. Will their broadband be improved? Will speeds quicken? Or, in some cases, will they get any service at all? Satellite broadband may be a better solution. You can phone over the internet. Data transfer speeds are available that suit businesses. So, one option is to get rid of the fixed-price copper telephone cable altogether and buy a satellite broadband connection. For people who will see no improvement in their service, this may prove a better option. An island hill does not stop satellite broadband.