Highlands 'must have fibre optic broadband'

Scottish MSP David Thompson has stressed the crucial role fibre optic broadband can play in generating jobs and helping businesses expand in Scotland, noting that further funding will be required to ensure the rollout continues over the coming years.

The Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Highland Council have been supported in their broadband plans with a £40 million investment from the Scottish government but this will be insufficient, explained Mr Thompson.

Writing in the Ross-Shire Journal, the MSP noted that creating a fibre optic broadband network in the Highlands alone is estimated to cost £300 million, of which only £115.5 million has been supplied so far.

He expressed his concern that fibre optic broadband could be especially difficult to generate in the sparsely populated areas of Scotland.

BT announced in December last year that 32,200 homes and businesses across the Highlands and Islands region will have access to faster broadband connections by the summer of 2012.