#scalpay

Cuppa: Rosevear Teas Keemun Daybreak black tea with milk and sugar

View: Loch an Duin, Isle of Scalpay

This was a double cuppa trip, the second one is Eteaket Orange Pekoe with honey.

This little loch has four big islands in it. The two biggest held duns, or fortified dwellings, with little causeways to the shore.

We were held up in traffic on the way home.

Eilean Glas Lighthouse.

Loch Ainort.

Fujicolor Print Industrial 100

Isle of Skye, Scotland

[2026-01-04 image ©Visit Outer Hebrides] The Outer Hebrides is a wonderful place as is the Isle of Scalpay, just off the Isle of Harris. The residents of Scalpay have their Internet (and phone) upgraded to fibre and hence usually have an excellent connection. But, being in a remote area their electricity has more outages than those of us who are in cities. In an article in the Stornaway Gazette , a resident was complaining that, during electricity outages, they lost all connection including the ability to call emergency services. [they had no mobile phone signal] This was despite having emergency Broadband Battery Backup which did not work well. Although it must be said that these power backups only work for a short time, a few hours at best.

My solution would be to use the mobile phone network. But the resident states there is no mobile connection. However looking at the EE coverage map, they cover most of the island and only a corner in the north east is not covered. There is no way BT /EE could provide power backups over longer power outages as OfCom are asking. Would a better solution be to build a mast overlooking the corner of the island with no mobile connection and then the residents could use their phones during a power backup. The upgrading of mobile network with a mast and an associated emergency power backup must be better and in the long term cheaper for BT / EE.

Another (expensive) solution is for the resident to get a newish iPhone that can connect to satellite and send emergency SMS messages.