Oliver Mundell MSP Connects With High Speed Fibre Broadband in Dumfriesshire | Openreach

Oliver Mundell MSP was out in the field with Openreach engineers this week to see first-hand the progress that’s been made with fibre broadband and customer service in Dumfries and Galloway. Our engineers updated him on the company’s plans to roll out the next generation of broadband technology – future-proof, full fibre services which can carry speeds of up to 1Gbps.

A government minister’s view

The visit was hosted by James Carsley, project director for Openreach’s fibre network build in Scotland, who said: “We know good, reliable broadband is really important to local people, and we have made great progress – however we appreciate that there’s more work to be done.

“Oliver Mundell shares our ambition to make sure everybody in Scotland has access to a quality broadband service. We appreciate that he was able to make time to come and learn about the realities of delivering digital technology into rural areas.

“Only Openreach has the commitment, experience, skills and local workforce needed to deliver an open, reliable, future-proofed digital network for all of Scotland.”

Mr Mundell said: “I’m regularly contacted by constituents about broadband, so it’s been useful to see today the progress that’s being made. It was particularly interesting to hear about the next generation of full fibre broadband and the huge difference that a reliable connection brings for everyone in the household.”

We’ve been working closely with the Scottish and UK Governments, local authorities and other partners to expand fibre broadband since 2013. The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband partnership rollout has brought fibre broadband to dozens of communities in the Dumfriesshire constituency, including Annan, Glencaple, Lochmaben, Ecclefechan, Gretna, and Amisfield, and includes small deployments of Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) in areas where it is the best technical solution.

High speed broadband in Scotland

According to the independent website Think Broadband, 83 per cent of premises in Dumfries and Galloway are now able to connect to broadband at a speed of 30Mbps and above. Our fibre to the cabinet footprint, at speeds of up to 80Mbps, currently passes more than 2.5 million homes and business premises in Scotland.

We’re also starting to roll out fibre to the premises more widely, with plans to reach three million homes and businesses across the UK by the end of 2020, and, if the conditions are right, to go significantly beyond. Edinburgh is the first city in Scotland to benefit from our Fibre First investment.