Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband Rock’n’Rollout with BONFEST in Kirriemuir

Kirriemuir became the ‘Highway to high-speed broadband’ as Digital Scotland were joined by the organisers of rock festival BONFEST to celebrate fibre being available in the Angus town.

More than 600 homes and businesses in Kirriemuir are now able to connect to fast fibre broadband services thanks to the £428m Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme.

To access the latest fibre broadband technology, local people need to sign up with an internet service provider, as upgrades are not automatic.

The Kirriemuir homes and businesses are among more than 10,000 across Angus now able to access fibre broadband through the £428m Digital Scotland.

Graham Galloway from DD8 Music - the organisers of BONFEST (International Bon Scott Rock Festival) - unveiled the cabinet today along with Kirsty Macari, Senior Sector Officer (Economic Development) from Angus Council and Samantha Lindsay-Dorward from Digital Scotland.

Other local areas to benefit from the Digital Scotland rollout, led by the Scottish Government, include Auchterhouse, Kellas, Liff, Muirhead, Friockheim and parts of Forfar and Brechin. More local coverage will follow as engineers from Openreach, BT’s local network business, continue work on the ground.

Graham from DD8 Music said: “It was a pleasure to join the Digital Scotland team to celebrate the availability of fibre broadband in Kirriemuir. It's good to see this project reaching more communities and giving an increasing number of homes and businesses the chance to connect to high-speed broadband.

“This weekend will be a celebration of rock’n’roll in Kirriemuir – the hometown for AC/DC front man Bon Scott. The festival sees fans from all over the world travel to the town, and many of them have become friends. With the availability of high speed fibre it will now be even easier to keep in touch with them year round.”

Angus Council’s economic development officer Kirsty Macari added: “We are delighted to be here today as we mark this important step in the rollout of super-fast broadband. Super-fast broadband will help support our goal to market Angus as a great place for businesses to grow, innovate and work in an increasingly competitive marketplace. It will also open opportunities for businesses to locate to Angus and create new jobs.

“This news, coupled with our exploration of radio broadband installations across the county to provide radio broadband to rural schools which will improve children’s access to digital learning, demonstrates the exciting opportunities broadband offers to the prosperity of communities for the future.”

Fibre broadband offers fast and reliable broadband connections at speeds of up to 80Mbps* and there are many suppliers in the marketplace to choose from. Whether you own a business, work from home or want to keep in touch with friends and family, fibre broadband enables multiple users to connect to the internet at high speeds and get better, faster access to online services.

Sara Budge, Programme Director for Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband, said: “It’s fantastic news that the programme has been able to benefit residents and businesses in and around Kirriemuir.

“I would like to thank Graham from DD8 and Angus Council’s economic development officer Kirsty Macari for joining us this week to celebrate the availability of fibre broadband in Kirriemuir and I am glad to see that it has been able to benefit the local community.”

BT is investing £126 million in the Digital Scotland rollout. Robert Thorburn, BT Scotland’s Fibre Broadband Director, concluded: “Hundreds of Kirriemuir residents can now connect to their best ever broadband speeds when they sign up with a service provider, and we’d encourage local people to check out their options.

“It’s a highly competitive market, so people could potentially be surfing at much higher speeds at a similar cost to their current service. Once you’ve made the switch to super-fast, we’re confident you’ll never look back.”

People can check the interactive map on the Digital Scotland website (http://www.scotlandsuperfast.com/where-when/) to find out if they can get the service and further information is also available on Twitter @ScotSuperfast or Facebook at www.facebook.com/scotlandsuperfast

ENDS

*These are the top wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.

Notes to editors:

Due to the current network topography and the economics of deployment, it is likely that not all premises within selected exchange areas will be able to access fibre-based broadband at the same point in the roll-out.

The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme aims to provide fibre broadband infrastructure to parts of Scotland not included in commercial providers’ investment plans. Combined with current commercial roll-out plans, the programme will deliver access to fibre broadband to around 95% of premises by the end of the current contract.

Funding partners include the Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, BT, the UK Government through Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), local authorities and the European Regional Development Fund.