Paul Neilson, Jillian McCall and Zak Neilson live in Johnstone, Renfrewshire. Paul works in ICT and so he was well aware of the potential benefits of fibre broadband. When they moved into their brand new home, they were frustrated to discover that it did not have a fibre broadband connection and were delighted by the impact when it was installed.

“Fibre broadband has had a massive impact on the quality of our lives, opening up new opportunities and new ways of working as well as improving our leisure experiences.”

Paul says: “The original connection was horrendously slow for our needs. With a 16 year old son, as well as two of us working from home sometimes, we have a huge number of devices in the house, including PCs, laptops, smartphones, Xbox and tablets. Our connection simply couldn’t cope with the demands we were making on it. We needed to ‘ration’ the available bandwith. So, for example, if Jillian and I were working or using Netflix, we would have to stop in order to let our son Zak enjoy Xbox online gaming. I was getting very frustrated.”

The family were delighted when a fibre broadband connection was installed in November 2017.

Improved flexibility and productivity

“Having fibre broadband has made a massive impact. Now we can all do whatever we want online – all of the time. Our download speed has leapt from less than 5Mbps to over 50Mbps – which is fantastic!

“I now have the flexibility to work from home whenever it is required. I can access all the company’s remote information systems and work just as if I were in the office. I am involved in updating a number of websites using WordPress and I can now do this from home if I need to. Before, it simply wasn’t an option. All of this has helped to make me more productive.

“I also help to run quite a number of Facebook Community pages and groups, including a local Neighbourhood Watch group, and this has now become so much easier and quicker for me.

“We love streaming movies and also listening to music on Spotify. All of this now works like a dream. Having fibre broadband means that at last we can make full use of cloud-based software. This is great as we can easily tap into whatever software we might need. Zak is currently studying for his Highers, so having a fibre broadband connection helps accelerate his online research as well.

Worldwide connections

“My partner, Jillian, is a beauty therapist with her own salon. Our fibre broadband connection will enable her to carry out work tasks from home, such as updating the website and carrying out business administration online. Jillian also carries out psychic readings. In the past, she could only do this face-to-face. However, fibre broadband means she can now rely on a clear video-conferencing link using FaceTime. This means she can now conduct readings with clients as far away as Australia. It has potentially opened up a worldwide market for her psychic readings.

“Having such a stable and reliable connection means that we have all become avid users of FaceTime. We have relatives in Hong Kong and it is amazing to be able to chat with people on the other side of the world just as if they are in the same room as you. My Mum lives much closer – she is only six miles away in Paisley! But I still love being able to FaceTime her whenever I want to and to find out how her day is going. It really helps you feel connected when you can see the person you are speaking to, even though you are miles apart.

“It is a brilliant feeing to know that we can connect to the whole world from our home here in Johnstone. Fibre broadband has had a massive impact on the quality of our lives, opening up new opportunities and new ways of working as well as improving our leisure experiences.”