Rural internet provision receives funding boost
Rural Britain is set to be dragged from the back lanes off the information superhighway to a front seat on it after the government unveiled a £530m funding commitment to speed up services.
It forms part of a drive to ensure that 90% of homes and businesses which currently languish off grid will have access to super-fast broadband services by 2015.
Syphoned off from the TV license fee the cash windfall is being distributed amongst each of the UKs nations and regions and will be allocated at a local authority level.
England will net £294m of this pot with Scotland receiving a £68.8m windfall to ensure that areas not served by the private sector are brought up to equal pegging with urban areas.
Though this largesse of itself is insufficient to meet the goal set, the government is optimistic that partnerships between local authorities and business will meet the difference.
The governments intervention follows concern that broadband take up in Scotland was beginning to flatline following a period of expansion.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “Many rural and hard-to-reach communities suffering painfully slow internet connections or no coverage at all. We are not prepared to let some parts of our country get left behind in the digital age."