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Rural areas left behind as cities get better broadband 4/12/11
Cities Labour list MSP Rhoda Grant has hit out at an award of government funding for superfast broadband for cities while some rural areas still have no broadband service at all.
UK Ministers announced last year that £830m would be made available for delivering
superfast broadband throughout the country. It was later announced that £530m of
this was to be released during this parliamentary term (2010-
Mrs Grant, who has been relentlessly trying to secure more broadband funding for the Highlands and Islands region,has been informed by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander MP, that up to ten cities are to receive money as part of a new £100m urban broadband investment fund delivered by the Westminster government.
Mrs Grant said: “To learn that the government is to direct funding to cities which are already well served by commercial ISPs is immensely frustrating given that many of my constituents throughout the Highlands & Islands have no broadband service at all.
It is estimated that it could take up to £300m to deliver superfast broadband across the Highlands & Islands and I have been lobbying Westminster and the Scottish Government to allocate adequate amounts of funding for this.
“To learn then that a Highland MP, who should be very well aware of the daily battle many of his own constituents have with poor broadband connection, sanctions £100m of an overall £830m to well served urban areas is particularly galling, not to mention disappointing.”