Rather poor lists if that's what's coming to Scotland (I didn't peek at Wales, but did notice Northern Ireland have plenty on one list):
Accepting orders: 18 / 634 (2.84%)
Coming Soon: 14 / 314 (4.46%)
Future Exchanges: 9 / 349 (2.58%)
Assuming there's no overlap on the lists, that's 41 / 1297 (3.16%)
Using:
http://www.ruralgateway.org.uk/sites/default/files/R...
6.47% of Scotland's population are 'remote-rural'.
11.94% are 'accessible-rural'.
The remainder of 81.59% are presumed non-rural. Weighing this into account, with the population 8.38% of the UK, 6.84% of the exchanges 'ought' to be listed. The rural aspect is not part of the equation imo.
6.84% vs 3.16%
In other words, Scotland's 'share of the pie' is less than half (46.2%) what it should be. If we also take into account the remote, rural areas (areas which would benefit massively from reasonable broadband) the figure is closer to a third (37.7%).
I find it strange that the very communities which would benefit the most from broadband are the ones being sidelined. Do the residents in the centres of large urban areas
need to shop online, require online banking or online utility payments? Given that there are more 'walk-in' facilities in urban areas, the rural communities could do far better with faster broadband.
By the way, I'm not suggesting that every highland hamlet should have FTTH. 4 Meg would be fantastic. We seem to have an increasing series of broadband tiers. Superfast, fast, reasonable, slow, pathetic, none. While it's fair that business can drive urban broadband infrastructure, and rural areas can't get the same business investment, can't the monies from businesses across the country be more evenly divided?
If there's little or no chance of progress, there will be little demand. If however, it's possible, more people will demand progress. IMO the wholesalers are painting the picture as impossible in certain areas, and people there are forced to accept it (look at the sparse rollout of ADSL2+, versus the potential benefits and reasonable cost).
I don't expect the smaller countries to have more exchanges, but I do expect the percentages to be broadly in line with urban population demographics at least. Those numbers are quite depressing.
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© Camieabz 2002-2011
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Scottish Labour politician: “The SNP are on a very dangerous tack. What they are doing is trying to build up a situation in Scotland where the services are manifestly better than south of the border in a number of areas.”
Interviewer: ”Is that a bad thing?”
Scottish Labour politician: “No, but they are doing it deliberately.” 
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