Superfast broadband rolling out to more rural areas

High-speed fibre broadband is being rolled out to a further 200 communities across Scotland over the summer, many in rural areas.

Up to 145,000 homes in Aberdeenshire, Angus, Ayrshire, Argyll and Bute, the Highlands and Shetland will have the chance to access faster connections.

The roll-out is part of the £410m Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme.

So far more than 3,400 km of fibre cable has been laid across the country.

Customers signing up to fibre broadband should be able to access download speeds of up to 80 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20 Mbps.

Programme director Sara Budge said: "It is great to be celebrating the first year of deployment of the £410m Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme, while announcing that more exchanges will be included, with areas such as Portpatrick in the south of Scotland and as far north as Voe in the Shetland Islands being able to connect to fibre broadband for the first time.

"The project is developing a high-speed fibre network which is changing the face of broadband.

"By reaching out to those who would not have been covered through the commercial market - in towns and into some of our most rural areas - we are ensuring that the connections which are made will bring many benefits to the Scottish people at home and in business."

Brendan Dick, director of BT Scotland, said: "The roll-out of fibre broadband across Scotland is one of the biggest and most complex civil engineering projects taking place in the UK today and we're proud to be at the heart of it."