The thing is, who sets the cost threshold? And then those most in need of being rescued will be missed out, defeating the whole point of the scheme, or else palmed off with satellite which is also cheating and defeating the point equally.
I appreciate that if you wanted to run a service to Heisgeir / Eileanan nam Manach (whaich are west of N Uibhist), or to Hiort / St Kilda then there might need to be a discussion. But someone needs to think properly about these things.
Near me, people live on Scalpaigh and on Pabaigh (the ones off Skye, in Broadford Bay, btw there are many many duplicates of those names - such as Scalpaigh na Hearadh and Pabaigh an Caolas Bhèarnaraigh near Harris and N Uibhist respectively). They are just a short distance off shore, so many hundred metres, and Broadford exchange NSBFD is nearby with major through-routes and some capacity heading off elsewhere too I would expect, so serious proper capacity is within reach.
I would just love to tackle one of these politicos and ask her/him what actually makes even 'real', makes it any different from Eric Idle and co. Perhaps the vagueness of it was partly intentional, just to put the fear of god into BT and make them think how best they can start to steer their purchasing priorities into long-range friendly technologies now, bringing costs of fibre per metre right down by getting them to lean on suppliers, commit to more volume, sort out their own procedures and so on.
