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Connectivity / Meeting to discuss improving broadband in the Westside

AN EVENT is taking place tonight (Wednesday) in Walls to gauge interest in a community project to upgrade broadband provision in the Westside.

The meeting is being held at 7pm in the Walls Hall.

The idea is that the community could pool together government broadband vouchers to potentially install full fibre broadband.

The event is being put on by local resident Mary Macgregor, who is working in collaboration with Digital Scotland.

She said better broadband would benefit everyone in the area, which has traditionally suffered from poor connectivity.

There are two vouchers available to households from the Scottish and UK governments for improving broadband.

These are through the R100 and the UK Gigabit schemes.

For instance £5,000 vouchers are offered by the Scottish Government to households which are set to be left out of the R100 super fast broadband scheme, for alternative technology like satellite.

“The idea is that if all the eligible premises club together the vouchers, you then get a business case, you get enough money to do a proper build,” Macgregor said.

“The idea is to get the community together, to gauge interest.”

There will be a small questionnaire which can be filled out at the meeting.

Macgregor said “separately nothing will happen, but together we can make it happen”.

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