Fibre Broadband For 900-000 Scottish Premises | Openreach

More than 900,000 premises across Scotland are now able to connect to fibre broadband thanks to the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband rollout.

The programme reached the milestone earlier this week, meaning that across Scotland more premises than ever before now have fibre broadband available to them.

Across the country around 4,500 new fibre street cabinets are now live and more than 11,800km of cable has been laid by our engineers, who are continuing work on the ground into 2019.

Places like Cortachy in Angus, Dunscore in Dumfries and Galloway, and the rural village of Forgue in Aberdeenshire are now able to receive fibre broadband for the first time.

How to access the faster services

Fibre broadband offers fast and reliable broadband connections at speeds of up to 80Mbps and there are many suppliers in the marketplace to choose from. Local people need to sign up for the new, faster services with an internet service provider, as upgrades are not automatic.

Delivered through two projects – led by Highlands and Islands Enterprise in its area and the Scottish Government in the rest of Scotland – funding partners include the UK Government through Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), BT Group, local authorities and the EU via the European Regional Development Fund.

Support from the Scottish Government

Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity Michael Matheson said: “Fast and reliable internet is absolutely vital to communities across Scotland. It helps businesses stay connected with customers and colleagues, and helps families learn, work, play and shop.

“That is why it was fantastic to visit Andrew from Scarletts Honey today and learn about how the infrastructure, delivered as part of the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme, has made such a difference to the day-to-day running of the business.

“The Scottish Government is not stopping there. Our Reaching 100% programme, backed by an initial £600 million investment, plans to deliver superfast broadband access to every home and business in Scotland by the end of 2021 – the only part of the UK to do so.”