£32m more super-fast broadband cash goes to Scotland

Another day, another broadband funding pot: the UK government is putting an extra £32m towards funding the rollout of super-fast broadband in Scotland.

The cash comes in addition to the £69m allocated to Scotland last August to improve its broadband infrastructure.

The £32m will help fund additional super-fast broadband connections for homes and businesses in Scotland, including in the Highlands and Islands "where the infrastructure is currently less developed and the costs of connecting additional premises are much higher than other parts of the UK", the Scottish Office said.

Between 85 and 90 percent of premises in Scotland should be able to access broadband speeds of 40-80Mbps by 2015, according to the Scottish government's Infrastructure Action Plan, published earlier this year.

Both the £32m and the earlier £69m allocations are only available on a matched funding basis, so the Scottish government will need to provide an equivalent amount of money to access any of the funds in either pot.

To date the Scottish government has already more than matched £69m, with up to £25.5m of the matched funding coming from the EU.

Posted by Jo Best