Superfast Broadband Rollout

17, 500 homes and businesses in Fife now have access to superfast broadband, official figures show.

Twenty locations, including Newport on Tay, Leuchars, Auchtermuchty and Newmills, are the latest to benefit.

It means more than 47, 000 homes and businesses in the region are connected.

Announcing the milestone, Depute First Minister John Swinney said: 

"The rollout of superfast broadband will allow more Fife households to connect to fibre broadband services for the first time, as well as giving businesses the opportunity to enhance their services.
 
"It marks another significant step for Scotland and the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband partnership. This is the fastest roll-out of its kind anywhere in the UK, passing 150,000 premises in record time, an engineering feat.
 
"We are still in the early stages, but already thousands of Scottish homes and businesses are able to take advantage and sign up. They simply wouldn't have had access to high-speed technology without this ambitious partnership project."
 
Brendan Dick, director of BT Scotland, said: 

"The Digital Scotland projects constitute a massive civil engineering challenge. A lot of the early work has been in planning, surveying and building central infrastructure.
 
"So it's really a remarkable achievement to see fibre broadband services already reaching 150,000 homes and business premises in more than 120 communities, including more than 17,500 premises in Fife. This is just the start for many of these locations as our engineers continue work on local upgrades."
 
Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey said: 

"The digital landscape of Scotland is going through a remarkable transformation. The UK Government is investing £120 million in superfast broadband for Scotland, and I’m delighted that more than 150,000 Scottish homes and businesses are already able to benefit from the work done so far."