Question reference: S5W-35044
- Asked by: Iain Gray, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 8 February 2021
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Current status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 3 March 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of households in East Lothian have access to superfast broadband, and how this compares with the average for local authority areas in (a) the Lothians and (b) Scotland.
Answer
Independent broadband analysis site, thinkbroadband, shows that 92.6% of all properties in East Lothian now have access to superfast broadband of 30 Megabits per second (Mbps). This compares with 98.8% in the City of Edinburgh, 94.3% in Midlothian and 98.1% in West Lothian. 94.6% of all properties across Scotland now have superfast broadband access.
More than 14,800 premises in East Lothian now have access to fibre broadband as a consequence of the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband roll-out, with over 12,800 of those able to access speeds at the superfast standard of 30Mbps or above.
Although the Scottish Government has no legal or regulatory responsibility for telecommunications, given the reservation of such powers to UK Ministers under the Scotland Act (1998), we are intervening – using our devolved powers in respect of economic development – to address the market failure within the UK telecommunications market that has left some areas of Scotland with poor broadband coverage. Our £600 million Reaching 100% programme (R100), 96.5% funded by the Scottish Government, alongside our Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme and commercial build, will deliver a minimum of superfast broadband to remaining addresses. Our commitment means that 100% of the R100 build in the £133 million South lot and more than 90% in the £83 million Central lot areas will be in the form of fibre to the premises (FTTP) provision that will deliver gigabit (up to 1000 Megabits per second) broadband services ahead of the roll out across much of the rest of the UK.