Reaching 100% Programme Bow of Fife broadband: FOI release

Information requested

Information regarding the Scottish Government’s Reaching 100% (R100) Programme:

1  Is there a plan and/or timetable for the rollout of broadband or fibre to the Bow of Fife hamlet from the Letham Telephone exchange?

2  If so can a copy be made available to me?

3  If there is no such plan or timetable can you tell me how Digital Scotland can claim "good news your address should be able to get superfast broadband by the end of 2021"?

4  If the plan or timetable is not available can the Minister give a written guarantee that the Bow of Fife will get broadband or fibre by the end of 2021 at the very latest?

5  If such a guarantee cannot be given can the minister explain why the Bow of Fife is not eligible for the voucher scheme?

Response

I can confirm that there is a plan to roll-out superfast broadband to the Bow of Fife hamlet from the Letham Telephone exchange delivered through the Reaching 100% (R100) programme.

The Bow of Fife falls within the Central lot of the R100 procurement for which BT plc were the successful bidder. The Scottish Government will invest £83 million of public subsidy in the R100 contract covering central Scotland and I can confirm that your property is included in the contract build plans with a connection currently expected to be delivered by the end of March 2021.

With all large infrastructure projects it is practical to expect that there may be some element of change. Should current plans change for your premises for any reason, then your property would become eligible for the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS). The SBVS was introduced to ensure that anyone whose home or business broadband speed was less than 30 Megabits per second (Mbps), and where there were no plans to bring superfast broadband to their address by the end of 2021 either through the R100 contracts or commercial deployment, would be eligible for a voucher. As you may be aware, we recently launched our new online checker, which provides information on both R100 and commercial rollout, which will become more detailed as survey work progresses. More information can be found at: www.scotlandsuperfast.com

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.