Navigating Scotland’s nuances to deliver better broadband

Over centuries, Scotland has developed a strong reputation for innovation, invention, and grasping the opportunities of new technologies.

Scotland continues to punch above its weight in sectors such as energy, life sciences, tech, and digital elements of the creative industries. But growth in these key sectors is underpinned by reliable broadband connections; which facilitate collaboration, new ways of working and open doors to exciting opportunities for businesses and residents.

However, these opportunities for Scotland and its citizens, sit alongside a plethora of distinct challenges and Openreach has a unique insight into these challenges.

Our commercial build, alongside the Scottish Government’s R100 programme – which aims to connect 100% of Scottish properties to superfast broadband – has brought us into close contact with Scotland’s breath-taking but testing landscape and its combination of late-medieval, Georgian, Victorian and modern buildings, all with their own quirks and irregularities.

Aside from these physical challenges, our team in Scotland also operates within a distinct policy environment, with a legislative framework which differs from the rest of the UK.

Legislative considerations

In Scotland, it’s much more difficult to deliver better broadband to tenements and apartment blocks because of the requirement to obtain consent from every single property owner in a block, rather than a majority which is the case in England and Wales. This has led to avoidable delays to our build work in many Scottish cities and towns. A fairly straightforward legislative change would remove this barrier and allow the rollout of superfast broadband in Scotland to move at the same pace as in other parts of the UK.

Additionally, there’s no concrete requirement for new homes in Scotland to have the necessary ducting to allow for broadband upgrades, meaning around 6% of new homes are unable to access better broadband now, or in the future, without significant alterations. We’re calling on MSPs to pass upcoming legislation ensuring that every new home in Scotland can feel the benefit of superfast broadband by mandating full fibre in all new builds.

And aside from this, in Scotland, it’s also the case that two-thirds of broadband poles are on private land, compared to around 11% across the UK. This dramatically impacts the pace at which we’re able to build – and increases the cost to do so. This is an example of why we need specific policy interventions from our government at Holyrood, which respond to the distinct context which Scotland operates within.

Overcoming challenges

These are just some of the challenges we face in Scotland, all of which we’re determined to work collaboratively with the Scottish Government to overcome.

Through our build, we’re fully committed to supporting Scotland to access the economic and social opportunities which better broadband can deliver, and our determination to deliver this knows no bounds. Our Scotland Board exists to ensure that we make the connections that matter to Scotland and is Chaired by our Chief Commercial Officer Katie Milligan, who originally hails from Ayrshire.

In 2023, we successfully delivered our FTTP network to Fair Isle, one of the most remote inhabited islands in the British archipelago. This highly complex feat of engineering meant that Openreach was able to establish a 100km long connection, the longest distance that we’ve been able to transmit a continuous fibre signal anywhere in the UK.

Our successful deployment to Fair Isle encapsulates many of the challenges Openreach faces in Scotland, but it’s also a great example of why we undertake this important work. We believe, simply, that as the UK and Scotland progress further into the digital age, it’s vital that no person, or community, is left behind.

To find out more about Openreach’s work in Scotland, get in touch at public.affairs@openreach.co.uk