Superfast broadband in Scotland: reaching 100%

6. State Aid Public Consultation

The EU Guidelines (at paragraph 78) and the 2016 NBS set out the requirements to hold a public consultation in order to validate the intervention area mapping by allowing all interested stakeholders an opportunity to comment on the planned aid measure.

The purpose of this document is to fulfil those requirements by publishing a description of the proposed aid measure, and seeking feedback from all interested stakeholders. The mapping for basic and NGA broadband are shown in the attached maps.

The attached map of the NGA broadband Intervention Areas relies on the definitions of white, grey and black areas, as set out in the EU Guidelines (and as summarised above). Scottish Government and CBS will only target the areas identified as White on the map. However, if the areas of commercial coverage currently identified as 'Under Review' fall away then these areas could potentially be added to the contract intervention area.

This State aid public consultation and the proposed NGA broadband Intervention Area maps are available to all stakeholders on the Scottish Government website and will also be available via BDUK's website at BDUK Table of local broadband projects.