25 April 2005
BT and the Scottish Executive have today unveiled plans to provide rural communities in Scotland with affordable broadband services.
Reports suggest that around 51,000 households and 5,400 businesses in 20 Scottish local authorities will be provided for under the Executive's Broadband for Scotland's Rural and Remote Areas scheme.
"We cannot allow remote and rural communities to fall behind simply because they cannot access this vital technology that can make a positive difference to many aspects of our lives," explained enterprise minister Jim Wallace.
Bob Downes, the director of BT Scotland, added: "We look forward to working with the Scottish Executive to overcome Scotland's unique geographical challenges and use technology to place Scotland at the technological, if not physical, epicentre of Europe.
"Ubiquitous broadband availability brings great opportunities for Scotland in education, public services and business life, and will place Scotland among the leaders of the G8 countries in terms of availability."
Engineering work will begin this week with the aim of providing broadband to 97.8 per cent of Scotland by the summer time with rural communities expected to have access by the end of the year.
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