Digital Scotland – Reaching 100% programme: public consultation report (revised)

1. Introduction And Background

The Scottish Government issued a Public Consultation^[1] into the eligible intervention area for investment of public funds into NGA broadband infrastructure on 5^th July 2017. The period of consultation closed on 5^th August 2017. The Digital Scotland – Reaching 100% Programme: public consultation report was published on 16^th May 2018^[2]. This is a revised version of that report for the reasons outlined below.

The Reaching 100% Programme ("R100") is striving to extend the availability of NGA broadband infrastructure to meet the Scottish Government's commitment to deliver superfast broadband access to 100% of premises in Scotland. This commitment is captured in the document 'Realising Scotland's full potential in a digital world: A Digital Strategy for Scotland'.^[3]

To achieve this, the Scottish Government intends to procure coverage of NGA broadband infrastructure (capable of delivering download speeds of at least 30 Mbps) in areas where such broadband is currently unavailable. Geographically, R100 covers the whole of Scotland. In addition, Scottish Government will develop a demand-led intervention programme for eligible premises not included in the NGA contracts.