Question reference: S5W-06924
- Asked by: Mairi Gougeon, MSP for Angus North and Mearns, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 7 February 2017
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Current status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 27 February 2017
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making with its plan to extend broadband to 95% of premises by the end of 2017.
Answer
The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme has brought fibre broadband access to over 700,000 homes and businesses so far and remains on track to deliver access to at least 95% of premises across Scotland by the end of 2017. This has been a huge undertaking with over 7,300km of access cabling and 400km of subsea cabling laid to date, and over 3,400 cabinets now enabled for connections.
Without this investment from the Scottish Government and our partners, only 66% of premises across Scotland would have been reached, with just 21% coverage across the Highlands and no coverage at all in Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.