Scotland Plans a £3m Upgrade Fund to Develop Rural Broadband

Scotland has for long experienced good internet broadband connectivity. Yet there are many regions in this small country that are remote and do not enjoy this facility. The government has now decided to solve this problem by giving out 3 million pounds as fund to facilitate the development of broadband services in her rural areas.

This announcement came after the minister for Digital Britain Stephen Timms publicized the government’s plans to levy a 50p broadband charge, which will be added to the customers’ telephone bills prior to the next general elections. He revealed the government’s plans of utilization of the funds thus generated towards the rolling out and improvement of high-speed broadband networks across the UK.

The plans of the upgrade have drawn the attention of many. Among them is Roxburgh and Berwickshire MSP John Lamont. In his interview to the BCC, Lamont stated that for a long time, many regions in Scotland have been suffering due to non-availability of broadband services. In many areas, even if the facility is there, it lacks speed and is far from obtaining the levels of best broadband service. The rural pockets in the Borders have particularly been the worst victims of poor broadband speeds. He expressed his happiness at the ability of the Scottish government to correctly recognise this problem and realize its gravity, and greatly appreciated its efforts to address and resolve the problem at the earliest.

Finance Secretary John Swinney also spoke on this occasion. He said there are many communities in the rural belt in Scotland that are yet to enjoy facilities of the broadband internet. He congratulated the government in recognising the dissatisfaction experienced by such communities and in being able to devise a method to address the problem. He expressed his happiness on the ability of BT and the Scottish government on being able to come up with a viable solution.