The Scottish government are not happy with the amount of funding that the UK government has allocated them to help fund their broadband roll-out.
Scotland were allocated £68.8m from the £530m pot that was allocated to help fund the roll-out of broadband across the UK with the aim that we have the fastest broadband network in Europe by 2015.
However, Alex Neil, Scotland’s cabinet secretary for infrastructure said:
“I am disappointed with the allocation from the UK government towards the Scottish government’s ambition for roll-out of next generation broadband across the whole of Scotland.
…this announcement from the UK government has fallen short of the expectations of the Scottish economy to the overall costs of broadband roll-out in the remote and rural parts of Scotland.
For instance the cost to deliver next generation broadband across the Highlands and Islands alone has been estimated at up to £300m, therefore we do not regard the UK government’s allocation as a realistic contribution to meet Scotland’s broadband requirements.”
The rest of the £530m pot that was available through left over money from the digital switchover has also been allocated with England receiving £294.8m, Northern Ireland £4.4m and Wales £56.9m. There is a universal broadband target of 2Mb broadband speeds as a minimum out lined by the government.