Dav McKenzie lives in the rural village of Langbank near Glasgow. As a member of the local community council as well as a freelance digital marketer and an avid online gamer, Dav is finding that fibre broadband is making life better in a huge number of ways.

"We have plans to create a virtual hub that we hope will be a blueprint for other local communities across Scotland - it's incredibly exciting and the whole village is buzzing about it"

Dav says: “Langbank is a small rural community and like many others, we have struggled to maintain our local facilities. For example since we lost our village shop, which was the heart of the village, there has been less of a central hub and less interaction between the residents.

Revitalising local communities

“Superfast broadband provides us with the opportunity to create a virtual hub for the village, connecting people again. We are seizing the opportunity with both hands and creating a dynamic web portal, which will be a central point for information about events, local heroes and council discussions, as well as other important information such as about localised flooding. We will also be harnessing the power of social media channels to bring villagers instant access to local information created by other villagers. Use of the internet in this way would not have been viable before the arrival of superfast broadband in Langbank. Now we have plans to create a virtual hub that we hope will be a blueprint for other local communities across Scotland. It’s incredibly exciting and the whole village is buzzing about it.”

Improving productivity

Dav is also delighted by the difference fibre broadband is making to his own freelance digital consultancy. He says: “A regular task is uploading videos to YouTube for clients. In the past, uploading a video would take hours and it was something I had to leave running overnight, wasting electricity and with a risk of losing the connection half way through. Now, I can upload a video in around 20 minutes. The difference the time saving makes to my productivity is enormous. I also experience the benefits in other ways – for example, uploading photos and files to websites, using Dropbox for file transfer, updates to software, backing up my files in the cloudall of these tasks are now extremely fast and straightforward. The list of benefits goes on and on.

Transforming business potential

“Another area where superfast broadband is transforming the way I work is in relation to my communications with clients. This is clearly exceptionally important as good communications are essential to winning and retaining clients. Now I have a reliable superfast connection, I can service clients regardless of geographical location. I use an internet based voice calling service to speak to clients in New York and London, without having to run up intergalactic phone bills. And I can use internet screen sharing to show websites to clients whilst I am speaking to them, so I can point out and explain features in just the same way as I would if we were sitting in the same room together. Being able to make the most of the internet in this way is a fantastic boost to my business. It means that I am not limited or held back at all by my physical location. The world really is my oyster now.”

Improving leisure experiences

Dav continues: “On a personal level too, I am loving the way superfast broadband makes it so much easier to make the most of my leisure time. I use many cloud based services such as Spotify and Netflix. I also enjoy online gaming and I can now enjoy all of these without interruption. The quality of the experience has been improved beyond recognition.

“All in all, the arrival of fibre broadband is great news for me and for the village of Langbank. It is already allowing us all to do things that would have been impossible before. And it is enabling us to break new ground in relation to the community portal. In future, I can see this developing in so many exciting ways, for example to include online healthcare initiatives.

Fibre broadband has opened new doors for all of us that I believe will transform and revitalise our rural communities.”