1Gbps Broadband for 35 Rural Schools in Dumfries and Galloway

The Dumfries and Galloway Council (DGC) in Scotland has secured a public investment of £1.36M under the UK Government’s £200m Rural Gigabit Connectivity (RGC) programme, which will be used to help 35 rural primary schools in the region to access a new “gigabit-capable” broadband or Ethernet connection.

The RGC typically offers a mix of either vouchers (for homes and businesses) or targeted upgrades for local rural hub sites (e.g. public sector buildings). The latter approach has already been used to target gigabit speeds toward tens of rural primary schools elsewhere across the UK (excluding 119 other schools that benefited in a similar way from the previous LFFN budget – here) and today’s news gives that work another boost.

Sadly today’s announcement doesn’t say precisely what sort of connections will be delivered to the rural schools (e.g. leased lines or FTTP), but we are told that Capita and Openreach (BT) have been chosen as the network suppliers.

Rob Davidson, Chair of DGC’s Economy and Resources Committee, said:

“We are committed to ensuring that our region is vibrant and successful and digital connectivity is vital for our economy and social inclusion. We welcome this funding which will benefit our rural schools from Ae to Twynholm, Springfield to Portpatrick, and many others in between. Access to superfast broadband will open up new opportunities for education, leisure and delivering the services our people need.”

End.