Businsses could be offered withhigh-speed broadbandmore quickly if
the rest of the UK followed Scotland's example of targeting
broadband black spots, Scotland's enterprise minister said this
week.
Jim Mather said that Scotland's strategy of using local
authority and regional development agencies to provide broadband
links in areas of poor coverage could add between £2bn and £6bn to
the Scottish economy and is an approach the minister recommended
for UK-wide success.
The Scottish Parliament will award a £3.5m contract in April to
fill
Scotland's broadband coverage gap, which affects approximately
1% of Scotland, by the end of 2008.
Enterprise minister Jim Mather said that the intervention was
made possible through a website, which helped identify areas in
Scotland where users could not gain broadband access.
The website allowed businesses and members of the public who
could not get a basic broadband service to register their demand
for broadband, helping to provide a business case for the
government to intervene.
"When you look at the US and Canada, there is a very interesting
pattern. Relatively small provinces such as Alberta or British
Columbia are cracking on with their broadband deployments. By
targeting specific areas, you actually improve broadband access
faster."
By plugging the gap in coverage, Maher said this would help
attract investment from businesses to set up in areas where
broadband had previously been unavailable.
A 2007 report for the Scottish Executive said that the annual
gross value added of broadband to Scotland's economy in 2015 would
be between £2bn £6bn higher owing to business take-up of
broadband.
However, it said that although broadband availability in
Scotland was approaching 100%, a divide would exist between urban
and rural areas and 26% of the Scottish population would not be
able to achieve 5Mbits per second for some time.