Win a community Christmas tree with Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband 

Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband is lighting up Christmas for communities in Scotland* – by offering them the chance to win a festive fibre-optic tree.

With Christmas fast approaching, the Digital Scotland team today launched a competition offering five luxury trees to help spread the festive cheer to local halls and community centres.

The £410 million Digital Scotland rollout has reached more than 455,000 households and businesses across Scotland, which can now access fibre broadband services at speeds of up to 80Mbps**.

More homes and businesses will be included in the fibre broadband roll-out in the coming months as engineers from BT’s local network business Openreach continue work on the ground – and for many local people, there’s still time to sign up with your service provider before Christmas.

Digital Scotland is inviting qualifying communities across Scotland* to enter its Christmas tree competition on Facebook. To enter, all you have to do is email a photo of your community hall or centre to scotlandsuperfast@gmail.com telling us who you are and why your community deserves to win a new Christmas tree.

Photos will be added to our Christmas Facebook gallery where friends, family and the local community can get behind the bid to win by ‘liking’ your entry. The winners will be the communities with the most ‘likes’ on Facebook (www.facebook.com/scotlandsuperfast).

The main prize is a 12ft high, LED-lit artificial Christmas tree, while four regional runners-up will each scoop an 8ft fibre-optic artificial tree. All five prizes are designed for indoor use only. The closing date for entries is 30 November 2015.

Sara Budge, programme director for Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband, said: “With many homes and businesses in Scotland now being able to connect to fibre broadband through our programme, I hope that lots of residents will benefit from faster broadband speeds as Christmas approaches, once they’ve signed up with a service provider.

“This competition is really exciting for communities that have already benefited from the Digital Scotland rollout as well as ones looking forward to being connected in the future. They have the chance to win a luxury Christmas tree which will brighten up any community hall or area.”

Brendan Dick, BT Scotland director, added: “Fibre broadband in the run-up to Christmas will be as useful as one of Santa’s elves for help with tasks from finding stocking fillers online to streaming your favourite festive films or exchanging virtual season’s greetings over the web with your loved ones anywhere in the world.

“A high speed connection will keep everyone in your household happy this Christmas as they can all be online at the same time whatever their internet interests.

“Businesses will also benefit with high-speed help to handle an influx of orders and enquiries, while also being able to keep in contact with suppliers and clients or work at home in the event of bad weather.

“This competition is all about celebrating the progress of the Digital Scotland fibre broadband rollout during 2015 and we hope lots of local communities will send in their photos and show us why they should win.”

If you’d like to receive fibre broadband for Christmas, visit www.scotlandsuperfast.com or contact your internet service provider to find out more.

Members of the Digital Scotland team will also be visiting a number of communities across Scotland in the run-up to Christmas. They will host free drop-in events where people can get up to speed with fibre technology and seek advice on areas such as signing up with a service provider. To find out if the team will be visiting anywhere near you, check our Facebook (www.facebook.com/scotlandsuperfast) and Twitter (@scotsuperfast) pages.