A delayed £70 million project to provide high speed broadband to schools and libraries across the Scottish Highlands has finally been completed.

The project was called the Pathfinder North Broadband Project which finally went live on Wednesday uses both fibre optic cables and broadband wireless technology to get the high speed Internet to all the schools, libraries and other council buildings, of which there is a total of 801 connected.

Five local authorities were involved in the project, which included The Highland Council and Moray, Argyll and Bute Councils and Orkney and Shetland Islands Councils.

The Chairman of The Highland Council’s Resources Committee, Councillor Carolyn Wilson said:

“The Pathfinder North scheme represents a major investment in rural locations, which depend so heavily on good communications. The provision of high-speed broadband services is great news both for our teams and the people they support, who have access to our community schools, libraries and offices.  We are looking forward to using the network to the best of its capability, ensuring that we continue to meet the needs of all the communities we serve.“

The new network is not being shared to other people in the Highlands which means that broadband speeds of between 2Mb and 300Mb will be available to those on the new high speed broadband network.