18 months ago Tiree Community Council applied to be considered for the Rural Open Sure Signal (ROSS) project. It was designed to provide a 3G signal of limited reach in rural areas where a mobile signal can be hard to find. The Community Council’s application was successful and since then they have been liasing with Vodafone and ROSS to get the signal boosters installed.
A number of sites were planned in the early stages, but due to technical constraints and concerns about the suitability of phone cabling on Tiree, 3 sites were chosen. These were picked for their proximity to the exchange at Scarinish, and their lack of reliable mobile signal.
The sites are MacLennan Motors, Tiree Scarinish Hotel and the dental surgery.
Vodafone onfirmed that they have completed their installation works at MacLennan Motors and Tiree Scarinish Hotel. They are still waiting on BT to carry out their installation work at the dental surgery at Baugh but Vodafone have pre-installed their equipment so when BT complete their job the unit will go live. The ROSS system will allow a 3g signal within 500 metres of the equipment, and whilst these 3 units will not solve the issue with mobile signal on the island, the Community Council hopes that it will alleviate the problem in the areas chosen.