Na h-Eileanan an Iar SNP MSP Alasdair Allan yesterday (Tuesday 4 September) raised the issue of broadband for Scotland’s island communities in a Scottish Parliament debate.

The islands MSP was speaking in the debate on the Scottish Government’s programme for Government 2018-19.

Commenting, Alasdair Allan MSP said:

“It has been said elsewhere before that the rollout of broadband today in rural Scotland is as transforming as the roll out of the telephone lines were there in the 1940s and 50s. And there is a new imperative - we are quickly coming to the point where families are as likely to move to a place without broadband as they would be to a place without telephones.

“Today, after millions of pounds of investment by the Scottish Government, some 75% of homes and businesses in the islands now have access to superfast broadband. I am very conscious that this is of course no comfort to the other 25% of families in the islands who have not yet benefited in this way.

“The challenge for all of us now is to work together to ensure the success of the R100 contract which aims to achieve this. I hope that we now have a basis for the active involvement of communities in planning ahead to ensure that all islanders enjoy the kind of connectivity that most Scots now take increasingly for granted.”