No Fibre Internet Access In Shinness, 2016/7
This is an unofficial document about the possibilities of improving internet access in the Shinness area.  I stress that it is NOT an official or government document.
I am a neighbour called Charles Macfarlane, and I am writing this because of my concern at the neglect of Shinness when it comes to such things as infrastructure.  To introduce myself briefly, although I was raised in England, my mother was from Inverness, and my grandparents are buried in Tomnahurich Cemetery there.  My first career was in agriculture, my second in information technology, but now I’m retired, and live at xxxxx.  I’m the person you see walking around here in all weathers.
Internet Access Now
Currently, all of us are connected via the century-old technology of telephony, by what are known as ‘Exchange Only’ (EO) telephone lines.  This means that a pair of copper wires connects each house directly to the exchange, without passing through any intervening roadside telephone cabinets along the way.  Our current method of internet access, Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), employs modern electronic techniques to convey data as well as voice signals over these same two wires.  It does this remarkably well, but, as your download speeds will doubtless be telling you, the technology is limited greatly by distance, and by the number of electrical connections in the line.  Most of us are lucky to be getting data speeds much more than about 1Mbps, which is below the minimum level set by the UK Government’s Better Broadband scheme of 2Mbps.
Internet Access Next (for some, but not for us)
You may have heard that a new fibre optic technology called ‘Fibre To The Cabinet’ (FTTC) will be available at the Lairg exchange from around early next year, and that this will allow significant increases in internet access speeds, but I have written to an organisation funding this, who have informed me that we at Shinness are NOT going to be getting this technology at this time, because we are too remote from the exchange and connected by Exchange Only lines, so there is no roadside cabinet to connect to the exchange via a fibre optic line.  They say that, depending on funding, we may, or may not, at some point in the future get FTTC or some other equivalent technology, but meanwhile our only hope is the Better Broadband scheme, which though subsidised initially, could prove expensive in the long run.
While I understand and accept that the technological limitations of FTTC excludes our current EO lines, nevertheless it is my belief that we should be included in the current FTTC scheme by relaying local telephone lines to go via a local cabinet, which could then be connected back to the exchange via fibre optic.  I believe this because, in the area that would benefit, there are about 60 households or business premises   -  about 12% of the total for the Lairg exchange  -  local copper cabling is in a poor state of repair and needs attention anyway, and actually we need this technology far more than those nearer the exchange, who already have more workable data speeds using ADSL.
Therefore, if there is sufficient local support, I am prepared to organise a petition to the appropriate authorities attempting to get us included in the forthcoming rollout.  If you would like to support me in this, please let me have your contact details via email, text, or phone:
[email address and phone numbers]
Technologies
This appendix attempts to explain as simply as possible, but without losing important detail, the differences between the technologies involved:
Normal Telephone Line
A telephone line is a pair of copper wires connecting the customer’s premises, home or business, to the exchange, which together with equipment at each end form an electrical circuit capable of transmitting signals in the range of human hearing.  For ease of installation and maintenance, most premises in towns and villages are connected to the exchange via roadside cabinets.
Exchange Only (EO) Line
A phone line where, as for each of us in Shinness, the customer’s premises are connected directly to the exchange without the line going through any roadside cabinets.
Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC)
Where a customer’s premises remain connected to the exchange via a pair of copper wires which go through a cabinet, and voice signals still use this path, but data signals travel between the exchange and the cabinet via fibre-optic, only continuing thence to the customer’s premises via the same copper wires as the voice signals.  As this is usually a much shorter distance over copper than from the exchange, it dramatically increases the data speed available at the premises.
Depending on ISP, consumer costs of this technology may be only a little more than ADSL.
Fibre To The Home (FTTH) / Fibre To The Premises (FTTP)
Where a customer’s premises are connected to the exchange via fibre-optic.
Consumer costs of this technology are sufficiently high to deter most people, so this option is only described here for completeness’ sake.

Phone

EO

FTTC

FTTP

Figure 1 (black = copper, grey = fibre-optic):