Aberdeenshire Council has set up a digital engagement team to help residents and businesses obtain better broadband.
The three-person team is funded by the Aberdeen City Region Deal to provide guidance in utilising various programmes to obtain broadband with speeds of at least 30Mbps.
It is also working closely with local and national telecoms operators to develop the best solutions for every area of Aberdeenshire, covering possibilities with full fibre, fixed wireless, satellite and mobile broadband.
Vice chair of the council’s infrastructure services committee, Councillor John Cox, said: “This small but very dedicated team of officers will be operating as a signposting and advice service for North-East communities and informing and educating residents and businesses about their options.
“They will help identify bespoke broadband services and will look closely at how properties can be clustered to allow vouchers to be used jointly to give operators and suppliers more incentive to deliver larger or more impactful broadband solution installations.”
Voucher support
Under existing plans, over 16,000 premises in the county should be connected with full fibre by the end of 2027. Each of these are able to obtain temporary alternatives with the support of £400 interim vouchers available under the Scottish Government’s Reaching 100% (R100) programme – although they must be used by the end of March this year.
An additional 7,100 properties not included in the planned roll out are eligible for £500 main vouchers as part of R100, and UK Government is making vouchers available worth up to £1,500 for residential premises and £3,500 for business premises under the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.
