Clyde 1 breakfast show host, George Bowie, and Bowie@Breakfast traffic and travel presenter, Cassi Gillespie, gave a big Digital Scotland shout-out last week, as they joined pupils from Clydebank High to welcome the arrival of fibre broadband in the area.

More than 3,500 homes and businesses in Clydebank are now able to connect to fibre broadband, with more to follow, thanks to the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme.

S6 Pupils from Clydebank High helped George and Cassi with the celebrations at a special event on Friday, where they unveiled one of the new street cabinets that will serve part of the town. Joining them were Councillor David McBride, Vice-Convener for Infrastructure, Regeneration and Economic Development for West Dunbartonshire Council, and Councillors Gail Casey, Willie Hendrie and Denis Agnew – as well as members of the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband team.

The properties in Clydebank join more than 5,100 homes and businesses in West Dunbartonshire which are now able to access fibre broadband through the Digital Scotland rollout.

Other areas where fibre is now live thanks to the programme include Balloch, Jamestown, Bonhill, Dumbarton, Yoker, Bowling and Old Kilpatrick. More homes and businesses are also planned to go live in the coming months as engineers from BT’s local network business Openreach continue work on the ground.

The latest premises are among more than 455,000 across Scotland which can now access fibre broadband services at speeds of up to 80Mbps* as part of the £410 million Digital Scotland rollout. The project underpins the Scottish Government’s aim of delivering world class connectivity by 2020.

Fibre broadband enables multiple users in a home or business to access the internet, download and share large files at the same time more quickly than ever before. In order to take advantage of the higher speeds now available, residents should contact their service provider.

On Saturday, the public were also able to attend a special drop-in event at Three Queen's Square to get up to speed with the technology and seek advice on areas such as signing up with a service provider.

Clyde 1, Bowie@Breakfast host, George Bowie said: “I was delighted to assist the pupils from Clydebank High with welcoming fibre broadband to the town.

It’ll certainly have a positive effect for everyone across the area. It’ll also be making it even easier for listeners to tune into the station via the Clyde 1 website (www.clyde1.com), as well as chat and interact with me and the other Clyde 1, 2 & 3 presenters through social media.”

Attendees climbed aboard the new Digital Scotland Fibre Showcase, a specially-adapted vehicle which features all of the equipment used in the roll-out of fibre broadband. The unique vehicle includes equipment which is familiar to members of the public - like new green street cabinets - as well as some of the things they don’t often see - such as how fibre optic cables are ‘blown’ underground as part of the deployment.

Councillor David McBride, Vice-Convener of Infrastructure, Regeneration and Economic Development, said: “It is great news for Clydebank and the whole of West Dunbartonshire that more and more households are able to connect to fibre broadband. This service will provide many opportunities for homes and businesses, and I’m sure will be welcomed by all.

“It was great that pupils from Clydebank High were able to join us today, as they are the future of our communities, and providing this latest infrastructure will help to improve the life chances of all of our children and young people. I’m looking forward to seeing this project continue to develop throughout the area as we continue to build a better West Dunbartonshire.”

Sara Budge, programme director for Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband, said: “With homes and businesses in Clydebank being able to connect fibre broadband, residents will see a positive boost in what they can achieve online, once signing up with a service provider.

“It was fantastic having pupils from Clydebank High and George Bowie and Cassi Gillespie to help us with our celebrations. Fibre services will have a huge benefit to those in any level of education. With the number of resourcing websites, interactive sites and video streaming channels available, it’ll really bring any subject to life and help children get the best out of their education.”

BT is investing £126 million in the Digital Scotland programme, in addition to its commercial rollout of fibre broadband in Scotland.

Brendan Dick, BT Scotland director, said: “Thousands more people in West Dunbartonshire now have access to their best ever broadband speeds thanks to the Digital Scotland project. It’s great that local pupils, as well as George and Cassi, were able to help us celebrate its arrival in Clydebank and get an insight into how high-speed technology powers the internet.”

Local people can check the interactive map on the Digital Scotland website (/whereandwhen) to find out if they can get the service and further information is also available on Twitter @ScotSuperfast or Facebook at www.facebook.com/scotlandsuperfast