68,500 more Scottish homes and businesses get faster broadband

18 more communities from Moray to the Borders now benefiting from roll-out programme; Scottish Government welcomes new development 

BT announced today that faster broadband is now available to almost 68,500 more homes and businesses in Scotland.

Eighteen Scottish communities – from Fochabers in Moray to Galashiels in the Scottish Borders – are the latest places to benefit from upgrades as part of the roll-out of BT’s next generation broadband service delivered over copper lines. A full list can be found at the end of this release.

The BT investment will make available download speeds of up to 20 megabits per second (Mbps) – more than double the fastest speed previously available from BT.

The faster broadband is already available to 1.6 million Scottish premises and, by next Spring, almost 80 per cent of homes and businesses in Scotland will be served by an exchange which has been upgraded to deliver these higher speeds. The new service is available on an open, wholesale basis to all companies providing broadband*.

Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities, Nicola Sturgeon, said: “I very much welcome this latest announcement from BT. It is essential that households and businesses everywhere in Scotland have access to high-speed connectivity to enable our economy to thrive.

“The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that a world class digital infrastructure is in place across Scotland by 2020 and that a significant increase in coverage has been achieved by 2015. This investment, along with significant investment by the public sector, will ensure that this ambition is achieved.”

BT Scotland director Brendan Dick said: “Faster broadband will deliver important benefits for people across Scotland, whether they are running a business, working or studying from home, doing the weekly shop online, downloading films and TV programmes or keeping in touch with friends and family around the world. It can all be done better using faster broadband.

“That’s why BT is determined to bring faster speeds to as many homes and businesses as possible, and we are keen to work with the public sector to find solutions for even the most challenging locations.”

This investment in the copper network is in addition to BT’s £2.5 billion roll-out of fibre-based broadband, which will bring even faster speeds to around two-thirds of UK premises by the end of 2014.

Locations included in today’s announcement are:

Exchange	County
INVERBERVIE	Aberdeenshire
MACDUFF	Aberdeenshire
ALFORD	Aberdeenshire
TURRIFF	Aberdeenshire
ROSE ST	City of Edinburgh
BAXTER	Dundee City
GALSTON	East Ayrshire
BO'NESS	Falkirk
BONNYBRIDGE	Falkirk
LOCHGELLY	Fife
BUCKHAVEN	Fife
FOCHABERS	Moray
WEST KILBRIDE	North Ayrshire
HARTHILL	North Lanarkshire
SCONE	Perth and Kinross
GALASHIELS	Scottish Borders
LARKHALL	South Lanarkshire
WHITBURN	West Lothian

Note to Editors
*Once an exchange area has been upgraded for next generation broadband, some service providers automatically upgrad