BT is starting to roll out services offering speeds of up to 330Mbps while Virgin Media has turned its city-centric cable network up to 120Mbps.

In October both BT and Virgin launched a legal challenge against Birmingham City Council’s plans to build a super-fast broadband network.

The council had successfully applied for European Commission State Aid funding for the scheme, but Virgin Media argued that there is “significant overbuild” with its current network.

There are no details yet about how the money will be split.

The plan is to have networks up and running by 2015, the year the government has targeted to make the UK the fastest broadband nation in Europe.

Linx chief executive John Souter said IXScotland was “a real step forward” for the internet community in Scotland and the UK as a whole.

He added: “The exchange will allow networks to stop ‘tromboning” traffic to London and back again, and will help increase resilience by creating a new centre for interconnection in the UK.”

The report outlines progress made in the last year across all four main strands of the government’s digital strategy.

The strategy includes an undertaking to invest more than £240m in extending next-generation broadband access to 95% of premises in Scotland by 2017/18.

In his Autumn Statement he revealed that 12 smaller cities will benefit from a share of a £50m funding pot.

Ten larger cities were announced earlier and are sharing £114m.

The chancellor also revealed that he expected the Treasury to make £3.5bn from the forthcoming 4G spectrum auction.