Over 3000 homes and businesses in the Wee County are set to benefit from the arrival of high-speed fibre broadband.

Clackmannanshire is joining the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband rollout for the first time, Dollar and parts of Kincardine will be able to take advantage of the project while BT is extending its existing commercial fibre network in Alloa.

Clackmannanshire Council leader, councillor Les Sharp (pictured), said: “This is great news for the county with some 3,270 homes and businesses able to connect to fibre broadband in the coming months thanks to the programme.

“It’s fantastic to see areas like Dollar being able to connect for the first time – which will be a big boost for the community, including those who are running small businesses from home.

“Residents are reminded that in order to benefit from fibre once it goes live that they need to contact their service provider.” The Digital Scotland rollout has now passed nearly 400,000 premises since it started last year and is now over the halfway mark to its target of 750,000 properties by the end of March 2018.

The UK Government hopes to reach 95 per cent of the country with the technology by 2017.

The first local connections are due to go live by the end of this year as BT Openreach engineers continue to work on the ground.

Fibre broadband enables multiple users in a home or business to access the internet, download and share large files at the same time and faster than ever before with speeds as high as 80Mbps available.

Anyone interested in signing up for fibre-based services should contact their internet service provider, top speeds may vary.

Towns in Fife as well as Perth and Kinross are also set to benefit and Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Murdo Fraser, welcomed the investment, but warned that rural areas remain behind.

He said: “This investment is good news for the residents and businesses affected in these 18 fortunate Fife, Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire towns.

“Despite this welcome progress far too many people in Mid Scotland and Fife remain without decent broadband connection.

“The urban-rural divide is most keenly felt on key services such as broadband and it stands to reason that if you pay the same bills as everyone else you should receive the same service.

“The growth of the rural economy will be dependent on the availability of key infrastructure, like internet connectivity, and I would encourage the Scottish Government to redouble their efforts to level the broadband playing field.”