Rural businesses to benefit from broadband access
Rural businesses to benefit from broadband access
Millions of pounds are being invested in broadband for communities that are currently stuck with slow internet speeds.
The government has allocated £362 million to improve broadband connections in England and Scotland, ensuring that 90 per cent of remote communities have access to decent internet speeds by 2015. The money will help to improve regions not currently covered by the private sector.
Jeremy Hunt, the UK culture secretary, remarked: “I am absolutely determined that the UK will have the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015 - one that we all benefit from.
“Fast broadband is absolutely vital to our economic growth, to delivering public services effectively, and to conducting our everyday lives.”
He added that the funding, which will allocate £294 million to England and £68.8 million to Scotland, comes out of the £530 million 'digital Britain' fund established by chancellor George Osborne earlier this year.
However, according to the Scottish government, the £68.8 million investment allocated to improving Scottish broadband has “fallen short of expectations”. Alex Neil, the country's cabinet secretary for infrastructure and capital investment, explained his disappointment regarding the announcement.
“This announcement from the UK government has fallen short of the expectations of the Scottish economy to the overall costs of broadband rollout in the remote and rural parts of Scotland,” he remarked.
According to Mr Neil, delivering next generation broadband to the Highlands and Islands alone is estimated to cost £300 million, suggesting that the calculations north and south of the border differ somewhat.
Meanwhile, businesses might struggle to conduct bandwidth-intensive operations on inadequate internet connections. Looking into leased lines might be one way of improving the situation and could provide a more reliable connection that the alternative.
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