“The good that is done by this organisation, just through being the backbone of the nation – supporting critical national infrastructure and our emergency services – is actually quite breathtaking,” says Ishbell MacPhail, the recently appointed Head of Scotland at BT Business.
“When you think about data sovereignty, cyber resilience and also the reputation of BT, we might not be regarded as trailblazers, but we are recognised as being the custodian of the nation from a connectivity perspective – and that’s a great place to be,” she adds.
These are not abstract concepts for MacPhail, who grew up on the Hebridean island of Tiree. She has an instinctive appreciation of what connectivity can provide, which has become as essential to modern life as water or electricity. “Growing up on a small island, we didn’t even have a TV or landline,” she says. “So, in my lifetime, the changes in technology have been incredible. And if you look at the investments that BT is making, for instance, in both fibre and mobile, that unlocks the potential for rural communities.”
According to Ofcom the improvements to remote and rural connectivity in Scotland are happening at pace. In the last year alone, the telecoms regulator recorded a 4% increase in superfast broadband, the highest increase of any area in the UK, and more than six in 10 Scottish households now have access to full fibre broadband.
“Clearly, we want to see growth and prosperity in those rural communities and connectivity brings people, because people want that way of life,” she says. “And if they can get ultra-fast broadband, reliable broadband, then they’ll come and they’ll contribute to that fragile economy and help build it up over time.”
Whether it can help address the depopulation challenge faced by rural and remote communities is a bigger question.
According to Scottish Government figures, 14 local authorities – many of them rural and remote – are projected to experience a decline in population levels in the decade ahead.
MacPhail believes the solution is multifaceted, but she’s clear that connectivity has a role.
“Technology is definitely an intrinsic part of it, but so is housing and accommodation and education,” she says. “And again, technology plays a part in the ability to deliver healthcare remotely, and a robust education system is underpinned by that connectivity,” she adds.
MacPhail’s career spans 30 years across the tech landscape, including pivotal roles at Dell Technologies and Cisco, before her appointment at BT in June. She began in the “altnet” marketplace, part of Scottish Telecom, a spinout of ScottishPower, competing with BT in what she describes as “niche regional spaces”.
From there, she transitioned into data centres, embracing the transformative power of technology and its role in economic growth. “It’s a sector that has changed a lot in those three decades,” she says.
“I spent 14 years at Dell Technologies with responsibility for Scotland and other parts of the UK, and later at Cisco as country lead for Scotland, and then Ireland and the north of England. But I’ve always wanted to deliver for the citizens of Scotland, the country that I live in.”
And what of her proudest professional memory? Pondering for a moment, MacPhail casts back to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. “We were very close to the city, Dell was one of the value-in-kind sponsors, and it was just phenomenal,” she recalls.
“Seeing the city come together, seeing industry come together, technology companies deliver… it was a real human level achievement. It was a year of being very proud to be part of something local that went superbly well.” She smiles at the prospect of reliving that memory when the Games return to the city next year.
Five months into her new role, she is also excited about the challenge ahead with BT. The company, under chief executive Allison Kirkby, is nearing the end of a £15 billion programme to deliver full fibre broadband to 25 million premises across the UK.
MacPhail explains: “I joined because of my belief in the transformation journey that has been articulated by Allison. She has been inspirational in the way she has communicated her long-term vision for BT, and I wanted to be part of that.”
She is also focused on her own mission and credits a “fantastic” team around her, delivering on vital national contracts, such as the Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN). SWAN is a secure, shared network that connects over 6,000 public sector sites across Scotland, including hospitals, schools and councils.
It was established in response to the 2010 McClelland Review, which found that the Scottish public sector was lagging in its use of IT. Its remit henceforth has been to improve digital connectivity, reduce costs and enable collaboration between public sector bodies.
Having won the contract to deliver SWAN in a competitive tender process two years ago, BT is now on target to transition 5,000 circuits by the end of 2026. MacPhail credits Hayden Edwards, SWAN director, for leading that charge. She says: “Hayden and his team have done a brilliant job and we’re working very hard to reach that milestone with NHS National Services Scotland, the contract lead, by next year.”
“We’ve transitioned over 4,000 sites so far, and nearly 4,500 circuits, with just over 100 organisations already on board, including all NHS boards, the Scottish Government, and nearly half of the local authorities. Our delivery teams have done a phenomenal job accelerating that rollout despite initial delays,” she adds.
BT’s investments go far beyond corporate strategy and SWAN. MacPhail highlights the full fibre rollout through Openreach, which delivers the Scottish Government’s Reaching 100% (R100) programme, as well as the expansion of 5G services, delivered by EE, the BT-owned mobile network operator.
MacPhail reports that 5G population coverage has grown by almost 15% since January 2024, now sitting at 83%. Small cell sites are strategically deployed in urban centres such as Edinburgh Castle, Glasgow’s Queen Street Station and Dundee’s Overgate shopping centre.
BT’s UK target of 90% coverage by 2027 has been brought forward a year, as the pace of rollout has exceeded expectations.
Given these connectivity gains, it is impossible not to ask about the impact of AI, and MacPhail outlines how the technology is transforming the way BT and its subsidiaries do business, through, for example, AI agents supporting call centre workers in customer-facing roles at EE and predicting network faults before they occur.
“Those are some of the homegrown use cases that have proved to very effective,” says MacPhail. “A lot of benefits can be brought into those heavily human resourced parts of our mobile business, where the stress and burnout levels can be high,” she adds.
“And from an engineering perspective, being able to use AI proactively like that enables us to carry out repairs in a more controlled environment, rather than responding to an emergency.”
When it comes to public services, MacPhail is keen to see how AI is addressed in the Scottish Government’s new Digital Strategy. But she signals a keenness to work with government to harness its potential, where possible.
“How we do that to capture the economic growth benefits are really what interest me,” she says.
“Yes, it would be great to improve public services, but for me we really need to invest in bringing on the next generation of data scientists and drive up those skills levels to be able to benefit from AI as a country. Because we currently have a workforce that isn’t scaling to those needs.
“So, we need to work much closer with the public sector, and with small and medium sized businesses to embed AI at a level where we can benefit all of society.”
