Rural Community Gateway

Although over 99 per cent of Scotland currently has broadband access, many people in rural areas experience the so-called ‘reach’ problem, mainly due to distance from ADSL-enabled telephone exchanges.

An open procurement process, worth up to £3.5 million, has now started to find a suitable provider(s) to deliver services to ensure that people in rural areas can get access to broadband if they want it.

Enterprise Minister Jim Mather said, "As many individuals and businesses in Scotland as possible should have broadband access."

In this 21st century, broadband is an increasingly vital tool for business and is now used by more and more households as a standard utility. By extending the availability of affordable broadband, we can help create a wealthier and fairer Scotland."

If you have a problem connecting to broadband, register your problem with the Scottish Government by the end of 2007. Work to enable connectivity will being in 2008.

The Scottish Government can only attempt to tackle access problems if individuals and businesses contact them direct, due to issues of data protection with information held by the telecom operators.

Ideally, you should have attempted to secure services from existing providers by asking for broadband and requesting that an engineer tests the line. This is the only way to confirm whether broadband is actually available or not.

The Scottish Government have decided on an open procurement approach to deliver these broadband services. They have researched broadband reach, had discussions with BT and recently had a consultation with the wider industry and the public on alternative options.

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