The shadow spokesman for Connectivity, Technology and the Digital Economy in the Scottish Parliament has grilled Fergus Ewing MSP on so-called “high-speed broadband rollout”. Jamie Greene, the Member for West Scotland and who is also the Scottish Conservative spokesman on this issue, posed the question in a recent formal Parliamentary Committee in which Cabinet Minister Ewing, was hauled in to answer questions.
The Rural Economy and Connectivity committee is a new committee set up in parliament to scrutinise the activity of various Scottish government departments which manage rural affairs but also the connectivity of our towns, cities and villages.
Speaking at the first meeting of the committee Mr Greene grilled the Minister on how confident he was that government would meet its target of 95% of premises in Scotland being connected by superfast internet by 2018. He was met by a response which said that the government was confident in its ability to do so, but the Tory MSP questioned just “how fast will this internet actually be?”.
Scottish Conservative MSP for West Scotland, Jamie Greene, said:
“I live in a rural part of North Ayrshire where I enjoy speeds of around 1Mgb per second. The same sort of speeds I had in Greenock as a spotty teenager in 1997. Yet I am listed as being on the receiving end of this lucky group of people to be connected to the so called high speed grid. Most of neighbours can barely download an email never mind stream their favourite shows from iPlayer or Netflix.
“Over the next five years I will be monitoring the progress of the Scottish government on this issue with spectacular attention to detail. I will not be shunned as the many residents and businesses in my region have been to date. A modern, advanced society like Scotland needs to be connected by fast, plausible and reliable internet and mobile reception. Half good is not good enough.”
