15 October 2008
More than three-quarters of broadband users in Scotland would like access to high speed connections, according to a new survey commissioned by Mott MacDonald. The management and engineering consultancy found that 84% of the online population in Scotland want superfast connections. However, less than 0.01% of Scottish households have access to the fibre networks required to deliver such services, suggesting that it may be some time before their demands are met. Tom Allen, Director of the Information, Communications and Media division at Mott MacDonald, said Scotland needs to work on its own fibre networks to ensure superfast connections can be delivered to Scottish consumers. "The roll-out of high speed broadband is going to be key to the future of the Scottish economy. It will allow the country's businesses to grow and innovate and give households the access to the information and services that other countries already receive," he remarked. Meanwhile, Virgin Media has claimed that broadband speed testing websites do not have the capacity to deal with superfast services such as the 50 megabits per second offering it is launching soon.