Another three Moray communities have been added to the scheduled roll-out of superfast broadband services.
Businesses and residential addresses in Brodie, Spey Bay and Tomintoul will now benefit from the service, joining thousands throughout Moray and the Highlands who have already been upgraded in the last two years.
Moray’s MSP Richard Lochhead welcomed the news, saying: “While broadband and communications technology remains a issue predominantly dealt with in Westminster the SNP recognises the huge importance of getting Superfast technology rolled out as widely as possible.
“That is why we have put in additional funding to extend the reach of the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband project.
“That investment is paying off with the project being extended to a further three communities in Moray and I hope that with the successes achieved so far there will be more to come as the rollout progresses.”
Highlands & Islands Labour MSP, Rhoda Grant, also welcomed the move that would see an additional 54,000 homes in rural Scotland able to receive faster broadband in the coming months.
She said: “This is indeed very welcome news for some of our more remote towns and villages and for our island communities.
“As I said last week, the campaign to introduce/improve broadband services started with Labour in the Highlands & Islands pushing the SNP government to act.
“This has resulted in one of the largest infrastructure projects in the UK being constructed in the Highlands and Islands which has included sub-sea cabling to island areas – it is only right and proper that the area where the concerns were first raised are now set to benefit.
“It is remote and rural communities that have most to benefit from broadband being available and I am pleased that some of these communities will now start to see services that are comparable with urban areas.
“That said, much still remains to be done to get connections out to the remotest parts of the region and I will continue to press the government to work on this.”