More than 6,000 Largs households and businesses can now access high-speed fibre services through the £410 million Digital Scotland roll-out, led by the SNP Government and delivered on the ground by Openreach, BT’s local network business. Other partners include Broadband Delivery UK, North Ayrshire Council and European Regional Development Fund.
Kenneth Gibson MSP urged local people to consider the benefits of a high-speed fibre broadband connection. He officially opened the local fibre cabinet outside Largs Library, which has just gone live and visited the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband Showcase Bus on the promenade to explore the engineering behind the technology.
Gibson said:
“Fibre broadband has an essential role to play in everyone’s lives, whether at home or in business. It’s great that people in Largs can now connect to this exciting technology if they choose. Broadband speed is important to many constituents and it’s good to see the excellent progress made. The arrival of fibre broadband means local people and firms can do more online at faster speeds and on multiple devices and it boosts the local economy. For every £1 invested the return is estimated to be £20, such is the impact.”
“I support the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme and look forward to fibre broadband being rolled out across the rest of Cunninghame North.”
The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme will deliver access to fibre broadband to 95% of premises by the end of March 2018. It underpins the SNP Government’s aim for Scotland to become a world class digital nation by 2020. BT is investing £126m in the partnership on top of existing commercial investments in Scotland.
Mark Dames, BT Scotland’s head of policy and public affairs, added:
“Across the Openreach network, more than two million Scottish premises can now connect to high-speed fibre broadband and, on average about one in four households have made the move to faster speeds. A strong take-up is especially important in areas covered by the Digital Scotland programme, as high adoption rates will trigger the release of further funds for investment into the network. We very much welcome Kenneth Gibson’s efforts to highlight the many benefits this technology offers to his constituents.
“With dozens of providers offering services, people may be pleasantly surprised when they look into the costs of an upgrade to their best-ever broadband speeds.”
Sara Budge, Director of Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband, added:
“More and more areas of North Ayrshire are now ‘live’ thanks to this programme. It’s important people realise that in order to take advantage of the benefits that fibre brings, you need to sign up with a service provider. Whatever you’re doing online, you can do it better and faster with fibre; shopping, downloading music and video, watching TV, social networking, studying or researching homework, once you’ve switched to fibre you’ll never look back.”
Fibre broadband offers fast and reliable connections at speeds of up to 80Mbps.
Further information about the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband project can be found here and more details on BT’s commercial rollout can be found here.
