Highlanders will have to wait until 2027 for superfast broadband, warns Conservative MSP Edward Mountain
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People in Caithness and other areas of the Highlands may have to wait until 2027 to get superfast broadband, according to north MSP Edward Mountain.
He claims the Scottish Government will be unable to deliver the technology to "all in Scotland" by 2021 as promised and says customers face "yet more costs and delays" before the system is rolled out in the Highlands.
Mr Mountain hit out after it emerged the Scottish Government is still finalising the contract with BT to deliver superfast broadband to the Highlands. Paul Wheelhouse, the Energy Minister, hopes the contract can be signed by the end of the year.
He told Mr Mountain, the Conservative MSP for the Highlands and Islands: "It is only when there is an agreed contract in place that it will be possible to accurately confirm exactly when physical work will begin."
The Scottish Government promised in 2016 to deliver superfast broadband by 2021 but the project has suffered from multiple delays due to a protracted procurement process and a legal dispute, which was only resolved in recent weeks. No details of how the dispute, between the Scottish Government and Oxfordshire-based telecomms company, Gigaclear Ltd, was resolved.
Mr Wheelhouse said: "We can’t comment on details of an agreement that is covered by non-disclosure condition, but the dispute is dropped."
Responding, Mr Mountain stated: "A non-disclosure agreement says it all. So a cash deal which costs the taxpayer on top of a voucher scheme. SNP government promised superfast broadband by 2021. Not delivered. A £50million voucher scheme, an unquantifiable legal pay off and delivery projected by 2027. Those are the facts."
He added: "Yet more costs and delays to the SNP government’s superfast broadband roll-out. The agreement with Gigaclear to drop legal proceedings will not have come cheap.
"However, due to a non-disclosure agreement, the minister is unwilling to make those costs clear to the taxpayer, who are now paying for the government’s expensive mistakes.
"The SNP government has broken its promise to deliver R100 (Reaching 100 per cent) by 2021 and it is now very likely that Highlanders will have to wait until 2027 for a fibre connection to superfast broadband.
"This is unacceptable and I am continuing to press the government to make swift progress."
As reported earlier this week, far north MP Jamie Stone also hit out at the Scottish Government over its superfast broadband programme in parts of the Highlands and claimed it had failed to deliver. The delay was "unacceptable," he said.
