Highland broadband on course

With work continuing to build the broadband network in Scottish highlands and islands, the progress is said to be going well, but there are also warnings that there will some extra costs and even more delays before the job is completed.

Originally the project was going to cost around £70 million, but this has already gone £1.6 million over budget and is at the moment over six months behind schedule, with 111 out of the 452 sites that need to be connected by 2009 being completed.

The cost of the project is being picked up by the Scottish Executive, five local authorities and the Highland Council who have had to find the extra £1.6 million. The project has been re-scheduled and with a new time table in place the work should be completed with the same time frame as before.