The Scottish Government

This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007

Listen

Broadband for all Scotland

01/06/2004

The Executive will step in to ensure every community in Scotland has access to affordable broadband by the end of 2005, it was announced today.

This means the more remote and rural parts of Scotland will be able to access the vital technology - even where it is not feasible to provide broadband commercially.

Enterprise Minister Jim Wallace also announced that Broadband service has been established in each of Scotland's three main island communities.

Residents in Kirkwall on Orkney, Lerwick on Shetland and Stornoway in the Western Isles will now have access to the technology and the advantages it brings.

It means around a third of households and businesses on the three island groups will have access to broadband.

Mr Wallace said:

"We said in our Partnership Agreement that we wanted every community in Scotland to have access to broadband and we are delivering on this.

"The Executive has made it clear that economic growth is our top priority. By providing all communities in Scotland with access to broadband technology and the huge benefits it brings, we are putting in place an important business tool to facilitate this growth.

"Broadband will make tangible differences in many areas of life on the Islands. It will help in business operation and growth and will aid the delivery and development of education.

"This exciting progress is the result of Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Executive working in partnership to achieve landmark co-operation between BT and Thus. These telecoms companies are sharing infrastructure and expertise in order to deliver, for the first time ever, this affordable broadband solution.

During a visit to Codyne Limited in Aberdeenshire, Mr Wallace said :

"Codyne Limited is a great example of how broadband can increase business success and open up new markets. This company has had broadband for just one month but is already is using it to improve their competitive advantage. Benefits have included being able to deal more quickly with customer requests to improving back office activities."

Codyne Limited of Portlethen develops and implements solutions for the management of environmental quality issues such as water disinfection and treatment of oil spills in harbours.

Employing five people, the company used the Executive's Business Broadband Incentive scheme to help it get broadband.

The company's Ed Gardyne said : "There is no doubt that broadband facilitates enterprise. We are now able to check the uniqueness of our developing products on the internet and explore more quickly the possibility of global partnerships.

"We have three or four exclusive UK partnership deals with US or global companies which grew from initial contact through the internet," he said.

"The business benefits achieved by Codyne illustrate why companies across Scotland should get broadband now, to ensure that they maximise benefits from the technology.

"Broadband is also important to the life of communities and individuals - it can help in the delivery and development of education and learning, and provides access to services. It also enables people to pursue their hobbies and find new and exciting ways to use their free time.

"The Executive will now put the procurement contract for the initiative to tender and will notify it to the European Commission."

The Executive's previous target of 70 per cent coverage of the population with access to ADSL or equivalent by March 2004 was achieved in January. In late April BT announced that all exchanges on the trigger list will be ADSL enabled by summer 2005. But 400 of the 600 UK exchanges not on the trigger list are in Scotland, mostly in the Highlands and Islands. Coverage in Scotland now stands at 78 per cent and is expected to increase to 95 per cent by the summer of next year - 80 per cent in the highlands and islands- as these commercial triggers are activated.

Other rural broadband initiatives include :
- Exchange upgrades part-funded by Broadband for Scotland have brought ADSL to the Western and Northern Isles helping to increase broadband coverage in highlands and islands from 17 per cent in 2003 to 40 per cent this year.
- The Scottish Borders Rural Broadband project is providing a wireless Broadband connection to up to 1,000 users in the Borders.
- 9,000 SMEs have applied for the Business Incentive Scheme since its launch in 2003. The scheme provides subsidies of up to £1,200 for SMEs taking up their first broadband connection.

Codyne Limited received assistance from Scottish Enterprise's Business Gateway high growth start-up team and receives ongoing support through SE Grampian.