06 April 2018
Wireless Infrastructure Group worked in partnership with O2 on a 50 metre tower that’s designed to enable around three times the 4G signal range compared to a traditional mast.
The rural Highland communities of Milton, Kildary and surrounding areas are to benefit from better mobile coverage and improved internet connectivity, thanks to a new telecoms tower.
Wireless Infrastructure Group (WIG) worked in partnership with O2 to build and operate the 50 metre tower at Milton. This was designed and built to a height that will enable an estimated three times the 4G signal range compared to traditional masts.
The tower is now providing 4G con-nectivity to customers in the region in addition to covering 15 miles along the A9. WIG says it has the capacity to offer access to all mobile network operators as well as other rural wireless networks, allowing them to provide voice and high-speed mobile data communications to local rural communities.
The new tower is located at a Scottish Water facility. It is part of a growing partnership between the utility firm and WIG that has already delivered 4G infrastructure to more than 150 Scottish communities.
Fergus Ewing, MSP and cabinet secretary for the Rural Economy and Connectivity, says that more than a dozen areas in Scotland with no access to 4G coverage have been identified in a £25m project to improve mobile connectivity. He believes investment in higher capacity mobile infrastructure is key to bringing digital services to the communities of the Highlands and Islands.
He adds: “WIG’s investment in the new tower at Milton, along with others they are deploying across Scotland, is a great example of what can be achieved when the industry and public sector collaborates”.
With a head office in Bellshill, Lanark-shire, and an operations centre in Solihull, WIG has ambitions to invest £1bn in UK digital infrastructure, targeting connectivity challenges in hard to reach areas through infrastructure solutions ranging from rural towers like Milton to fibre connected small cells in buildings and on city streets.
