SUPER-FAST broadband has arrived in Cowdenbeath, Kelty and central Glenrothes, BT announced last Thursday.

More than 700 homes and businesses in Cowdenbeath, 1200 in Kelty and 2600 in the new town exchange area, now have access to the high-speed technology – and this figure will increase to around 2900 in Cowdenbeath, 2400 in Kelty and more than 9000 in central Glenrothes as Openreach engineers complete the local upgrade in the weeks ahead.

The BT investment was welcomed by Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath, and Tricia Marwick, MSP for Mid Fife and Glenrothes, who both described it as great news for the three Fife communities.

Alex Rowley said, “Super-fast fibre broadband in Cowdenbeath and Kelty offers huge benefits to local residents and businesses and will help our local economy to flourish. Better, faster communications help businesses to grow and stimulate job creation and will be very much welcomed by the local community.” Fibre broadband is already available to more than 61,000 homes and businesses across the Kingdom. By the end of BT’s commercial deployment, more than 114,000 Fife premises will be able to benefit.

Brendan Dick, BT Scotland director, said, “Our roll-out of fibre broadband continues to advance across Fife, with the Cowdenbeath area and central Glenrothes the latest places to benefit.

“More than 2.4 million homes and businesses across the UK are already using Openreach’s new fibre network via a range of retailers, bringing speed and choice to the UK. Many Kelso residents will now have the opportunity to join them. “Whatever you’re doing online, you can do it better and faster with fibre. Whether it’s shopping, downloading music and video, watching TV, social networking, studying or researching homework, once you’ve switched to fibre you’ll never look back.

“Outside the home, it also has huge potential for public services and local firms. Businesses tell us it’s helping them in a wealth of ways, from day to day activities like downloading software, collaborating with clients and moving large data files around to big business decisions like expanding the workforce or introducing better quality IT services at less cost.”