Telecommunications network

Description

The Capital Funded Mast Deployment Project (the Project) is a capital grant funded intervention to deliver publicly available commercial 4G-LTE coverage from a fibre to the mast approach and provide next generation digital communications across some of the more remote and rural areas of Scotland. The Project allows for funding to be utilised to build masts up to a total value of 25 000 000 GBP. The Project is the first of a number of interventions which are to be advanced under the programme, with details of other interventions to be developed in due course. The Scottish Ministers have appointed a single Infrastructure Provider for the delivery of publicly available commercial 4G-LTE coverage from a fibre to the mast approach and provide next generation digital communications across some of the more remote areas of Scotland. The project meets the provisions of the Article 52 of General Block Exemption Regulations for State Aid funding and is exempt from the Public Sector Contract (Scotland) Regulations 2015 under Regulation 9. The Project allows for grant funding to be utilised to build masts up to a total value of 25 000 000 GPB to deliver next generation digital communications across some of the remote and rural areas of Scotland. This includes funding of up to 10 000 000 GBP from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to be used in the Highlands and Islands region of Scotland and up to 15 000 000 GBP from Scottish Government to match fund the ERDF funding and wider development across Scotland. Scottish Government anticipates that approximately 60-70 masts can be delivered utilising the funds available for this Project.