BT is all set to roll out superfast broadband to over 54,000 rural homes and businesses throughout the north and west of Scotland over the next six months.
The high-speed fibre broadband connections will be installed in 43 locations including parts of the Outer Hebrides, Mull, the Isle of Bute, parts of Moray including Tomintoul, parts of the Highlands, Orkney, East and West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, Lochgilphead, Campbeltown and Rothesay. The first connections are expected to be live and open for orders from this summer.
BT has already connected 216,000 Scotland homes to speeds of up to 80Mbps as part of the same project. The project is funded by the £410m Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband partnership and is carried out by engineers from BT’s local network business, Openreach. Other funding partners include the Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the UK Government through Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), local authorities and the European Regional Development Fund.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said “We are seeing growing momentum in the roll-out of better broadband. The project is developing a high speed fibre network which is changing the face of broadband and helping fulfil the Scottish Government’s commitment to deliver world class connectivity in Scotland by 2020.”
“We’re reaching out to those who would not have been covered through the commercial market, in cities, in towns and into some of our most rural areas.
“The connections will bring benefits to the Scottish people at home and in business.”
Brendan Dick, director of BT Scotland, said “The completion of our massive sub-sea cable laying programme has allowed us to make early inroads into delivering fibre for some of our island communities, well ahead of schedule. It’s great to see this progress when we’re still in the relatively early stages of the Digital Scotland partnership.
“Our fibre network passed around 10,000 new Scottish homes and businesses every week last year and we’ll continue to reach more and more communities in the course of this year. We’re very pleased to be playing our part to help connect the nation to fast fibre broadband and we know there’s still a lot to do.”
UK Government Communications Minister Ed Vaizey said “Our nationwide rollout of superfast broadband continues at pace and it’s fantastic to see the huge progress made in Scotland to date.
“Today’s announcement of the next 43 places in Scotland to benefit from our investment will see another 54,000 more homes and businesses join the 216,000 properties we’ve already reached. This huge boost to connectivity is a key part of the Government’s long term economic plan and we’re on track to reach 95 per cent of the UK by 2017.”
