Borders MP Michael Moore MP welcomed the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt's, announcement yesterday of an £830 million investment in broadband which will benefit communities across the Borders.
Mr Moore outlined that under Mr Hunt's plans, every community in the UK will gain access to the superfast broadband by 2015, with rural areas such as the Borders receiving public funds to build digital hubs with fibre optic internet connections.
After the election, the Coalition Government confirmed that they would work towards universal access to broadband with speeds of at least 2Mbps by 2015. Today's announcement goes beyond this and could see households in the Borders able to access internet speeds of 24 Mbps by the end of the current Parliament.
Mr Moore commented:
'I have been campaigning for many years for fast and reliable broadband in the Borders and I welcome this commitment by the Culture Secretary which targets investment specifically for harder to reach rural areas.
'The internet plays a vital role in our local and national economy but it is clear that people living in rural areas such as the Borders continue to battle with poor access, slow connection speeds and outages in service.
'This announcement will be a boost to the local Borders economy and demonstrates the Coalition Government's commitment to supporting rural communities which have often been overlooked in the roll out of new technologies by previous Governments.'
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