Thousands of homes added to Digital Scotland plans

The Scottish government's ongoing partnership with broadband provider BT, Digital Scotland, is to encompass up to 54,000 more households under new rollout plans for the scheme.

A total of 43 additional areas have now been added to the project's scope, with some of the most remote communities to receive a boost to superfast broadband connectivity in the coming years.

Parts of Orkney, Mull, Lewis and Bute are all covered under the ambitious new plans and download speeds of up to 80 Mbps are expected to be delivered to communities in these remote areas by the end of next year.

Set to get underway in the coming months, the first connections as part of this latest phase of the programme are expected to go live as early as this summer.

Scottish Deputy First Minister John Swinney commented: "The project is developing a high-speed fibre network which is changing the face of broadband and helping fulfil the Scottish government's commitment to deliver world-class connectivity in Scotland by 2020."