Question reference: S5W-01206
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 4 July 2016
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Current status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 July 2016
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what funding provision it has made for rural homes that have exchange only broadband cables and would therefore not be upgraded to Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) in order to receive superfast broadband, broken down by parliamentary constituency.
Answer
The Scottish Government and our partners are investing over £410 million in the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) Programme, which will extend access to fibre broadband to at least 95% of premises in Scotland by the end of 2017.
The DSSB programme deploys a range of technology solutions to meet these targets. Although more technically challenging and time consuming than standard Fibre-To-The-Cabinet deployments, the DSSB programme is delivering fibre broadband solutions at scale to premises on exchange only (EO) lines. Over 200,000 such premises have been connected across Scotland to date and we anticipate that more than 320,000 EO lines will have been upgraded by the end of the DSSB programme.
As the DSSB programme is a national programme, the budget is not segmented or allocated by parliamentary constituency. In addition, the programme has not made specific budget provision for individual technology solutions, rather it assesses and funds the most appropriate solution as the roll-out progresses.
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring 100% superfast broadband access across Scotland by 2021.