Benarty pupils get a lesson with fibre broadband

Pupils from Benarty Primary School in Lochore, Fife, were superfast in finding out the benefits of fibre broadband when the Digital Scotland Fibre Showcase paid them a visit this week.

More than 800 households and businesses across Lochore can now access high-speed fibre services thanks to the £428 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband project. Local people need to sign up for the new, faster services with an internet service provider, as upgrades are not automatic.

During the visit, pupils learned through interactive activities about fibre broadband and how it’s delivered. The local premises are among more than 745,000 homes and businesses across Scotland which are now able to access fibre broadband through the Digital Scotland rollout, led by the Scottish Government.

Other local areas which have coverage thanks to the programme include Ballingry, Dundonald, Lower Largo, Earlsferry, Kingsbarns and parts of Burntisland, building on commercial upgrades there. More coverage will follow as engineers from Openreach, BT’s local network business, continue work on the ground.

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.

Lee-Anne McAulay, Head Teacher at Benarty Primary School, said: “It was great to have the Digital Scotland team visit our school this week, it was a fantastic opportunity for our pupils to see the amount of hard engineering work that’s involved in connecting up communities to fibre broadband. It also showed our pupils how beneficial it would be when it comes to their school work and various other aspects of their home life.”

Sara Budge, Programme Director for Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband, said: “It’s great news that many residents and businesses in and around Benarty are now able to receive fibre broadband thanks to the programme, with more local coverage to follow.

“I also hope that all the children at the school enjoyed visiting our Digital Scotland Fibre Showcase and found it insightful in finding out what fibre broadband can provide and how it’s delivered.”

Robert Thorburn, BT Scotland’s Fibre Broadband Director, added: “Thousands of people in Fife now have the opportunity to access their best ever broadband speeds when they sign up with a service provider. There’s lots of competition out there and people may find they could be surfing at much higher speeds at a similar cost to their current service.

“We’d like to thank Benarty Primary School for having us – it’s great that local pupils were able to get an insight into how high-speed technology powers the internet and learn about a very positive side to a career in engineering.”

Local 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.