From Victorian greats such as James Clark Maxwell, Thomas Blake Glover and Alexander Graham Bell to present-day technological advances, Scotland enjoys a proud tradition of innovation in communications technology.

The Scottish communications technology industry

Scotland’s communications cluster comprises around 200 companies, ranging from large global organisations to smaller, home-grown companies. The Scottish communications technology market covers the industry's four main sectors: fixed line communications; mobile and wireless communications; broadcast services; and cross-cutting business (convergence).

Scotland has real strength in mobile and wireless communications and convergence, specifically in wireless equipment, network management, mobile applications and content and delivery.

Invest in communications technology in Scotland

Scotland's communications technology market is buoyant, with a strong company base, highly skilled workforce and a large pool of experienced graduates available. Other commercial advantages include:

• Established communications products and services from academic spin-outs and start-ups through to global companies.
• An outstanding academic and commercial base, and a strong support network for inward investors.
• A pipeline of companies, at different stages of their product development and maturity, supporting the wireless and mobile area.
• Scottish companies developing innovative software and chipset products for use with Ultra Wide band applications in the future.
• In-depth technical strength in the DSP market in Scotland, with around 40 companies involved in this area.

Academic support for communications technology in Scotland

Scotland's universities play a key role in supporting the communications technology sector, and attract high levels of research funding. Current research activity includes:

• Specialist groups at the University of Strathclyde carrying out research into Mobile Communications, Broadband Networks and Signal Processing.
• The University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Digital Communications pioneering research on digital signal processing, wireline communications systems and non linear signal processing.
• The University of Abertay establishing the world's first university degree course in Games Technology and virtual environment.
• The Speckled Computing Consortium bringing together five of Scotland's leading universities to research semiconductor specks which can sense, compute and communicate wirelessly.

Scottish Development International provides active support for the Scottish electronics industry

Contact SDI to discover how we can help communications technology companies and businesses working in other electronics industries in Scotland