Councillor Aileen Morton, the council’s policy lead for IT services, told the Advertiser the local authority has written to Scotland’s deputy first minister John Swinney requesting sufficient funding to ensure that there will be the capacity to deliver next generation broadband to 95 per cent of premises in Helensburgh and Lomond by 2017 – and that by 2020 all premises will be able to access the services. Cllr Morton said: “The current rollout of superfast broadband should see 92 per cent of premises in Helensburgh and Lomond receive access to superfast broadband by 2016. “In Helensburgh and Lomond some residents are already benefitting from the commercial rollout by BT, while others will need to wait for the publicly-funded Rest of Scotland project. “As new technologies continue to be developed I would hope to see improvements in both the number of premises connected and the speeds they receive.” Last week, Mr Swinney MSP called on the UK Government to implement a Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband services. In a letter to Ed Vaizey, the UK Minister for the Digital Economy, Mr Swinney called for the introduction of a specific broadband obligation that would ensure everyone in Scotland can access affordable, high-speed broadband by 2020. He wrote: “The Scottish Government has set an ambitious digital policy agenda aimed at ensuring that all of Scotland can access world class digital connectivity by 2020 and we are taking forward a range of activity and investment to deliver this. “Broadband is something everyone in Scotland should have access to – it’s a vital service in today’s world. That is why I am pressing the UK Government to introduce a broadband Universal Service Obligation, which would set out access as an entitlement.” He added: “This government is prioritising investment that will play a key role in driving fibre broadband to non-commercial areas. “With our partners we are investing £410 million through the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme to extend fibre broadband infrastructure to areas where the market would not otherwise go. “This will ensure that 95 per cent of premises across Scotland will have access to fibre broadband by the end of 2017.” The UK currently has a telecoms USO which entitles every property in the UK to a telephone line, but this USO doesn’t contain any meaningful provision for broadband. Some households in Argyll and Bute don’t have access to broadband of any kind. Cllr Morton said: “Without further detail on exactly what conditions would be created it is difficult to know what impact a Universal Service Obligation would have locally, but it would certainly be helpful to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to benefit from superfast broadband as some residents in Argyll and Bute have no access to broadband of any kind.” A broadband USO would work alongside significant Scottish Government investments to help address the digital divide and ensure everybody could access broadband services regardless of where they live. Mr Swinney added: “The introduction of a USO for broadband with an appropriate speed requirement, as introduced by Finland, Malta, and Spain in recent years, would be a way of ensuring no one is excluded from the benefits of this integral technology.” Last year a further £42 million investment in superfast broadband was announced by the UK and Scottish Governments, and the Audit Scotland report on Superfast Broadband for Scotland, issued this month, stated there should be clear plans in place by June 2015 for this money. However, Alan Reid, MP for Argyll and Bute, claims the plans by the Scottish Government don’t go far enough and should be ‘more ambitious’ to ensure that everybody gets super fast broadband. Last week, Mr Reid criticised the Scottish Government and BT for sending out ‘mixed messages’ about the installation of super fast broadband in Cardross, claiming 900 homes were being promised super fast broadband despite necessary infratsructure not yet being in place. He said more needs to be done to ensure that everybody gets super fast broadband and the speed of broadband needs to be increased. Mr Reid added: “Mr Swinney refers to Spain and Finland which have set their universal broadband speed at 1 Mbps. “I know people who would be delighted to get that, but we must be far more ambitious than 1 Mbps. “We need to give everybody superfast broadband otherwise Argyll and Bute will fall behind. “The Scottish Government have the responsibility to deliver that, but they are dragging their feet. “It’s high time they got on with the job and delivered superfast broadband everywhere now instead of settling for speeds of 1 Mbps.”