ALMOST £18million is being made available to accelerate high-speed broadband roll-out for Scotland’s rural communities, John Swinney announced yesterday.
The move comes following the success of the Scottish Government-backed £410m Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme, which has now reached more than 365,000 homes and businesses from the Shetland Isles to Dumfries and Galloway.
The Deputy First Minister made the announcement as the Scottish Cabinet visited Ullapool. He said: “We are now seeing huge strides forward in transforming the future of connectivity for Scotland’s rural communities and businesses.
“This is another major step towards creating an infrastructure capable of supporting world class connectivity across Scotland.”
The programme brings together public and BT funding to go further with fibre broadband to areas that would not otherwise be reached. It will result in 85 per cent of premises in Scotland with access to high-speed fibre broadband by the end of March 2016 and 95 per cent by the end of 2017.
The contract between the Scottish Government, BT and Highlands and Islands Enterprise included a “gain share” clause to claw back funding if the project reached agreed take up levels, which it is on track to exceed.
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