Scotland promised next-gen broadband cash

The UK government's 200 million investment into boosting rural broadband will pay particular attention to Scotland, according to officials.

Communications minister Stephen Timms is expected on Friday to lay out the government's plans for improving the poor quality of broadband in the country, at a meeting of Scottish local authorities and telephone groups.

The government says the move will emphasise its commitment to ensuring towns and remote areas of Scotland will have access to next-generation networks by 2017, as laid out in this year's Digital Britain report.

"Digital Britain's aim is to make the UK one of the most competitive, highly skilled and technologically advanced economies in the world," said Timms. "The government will spend some 200m on improving the broadband networks of areas that have little or no service, including remote parts of Scotland."

Timms was expected to provide more details of how government funding will be made available for high-speed broadband providers in areas that would not be reached by private sector investment alone.