Posted: 12th Aug, 2005 By: MarkJ
Efforts to bring broadband to even the remotest communities in the UK continue as £30m is pledged by the Scottish Executive, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise, EU Regional Development Fund (EDRF) and BT to enable areas near the mountainous Cairngorms:
Visiting a telephone exchange near Aviemore, telecoms minister Tavish Scott said that the scheme would help Scotland to move ahead of G8 industrialised nations in broadband provision.
"The Scottish Executive is committed to providing every community access to affordable broadband services by the end of 2005," he said.
Through the Executive's Broadband for Scotland's Rural and Remote Areas Initiative, broadband connections are being installed in 378 exchanges serving 51,000 households and 5,400 businesses and organisations across Scotland. The initiative has been funded as part of the Executive's £24m broadband strategy, and has also received financial support of up to £5m from the ERDF.Its heartening to see government and commercial businesses finally kicking their heels together in order to target 100% broadband coverage. We just hope that the same principal can be applied to the whole of the UK. More @
ZDNet.