Bussiness
More parts of Scotland reached by broadband upgrade
Full fibre broadband is heading to 28 more Scottish city suburbs, towns and villages, as part of a broadband upgrade by Openreach.
People living in Port Glasgow in Inverclyde, Possil in Glasgow, Wester Hailes in Edinburgh, Grantown on Spey in the Highlands, Scone in Perth and Kinross, Tobermory on the Isle of Mull and 22 other communities are next in line for full fibre.
Several new locations in Fife and South Lanarkshire will be upgraded, while more parts of Aberdeen and Dundee are also included.
Across the UK, Openreach has published updated plans to build full fibre broadband to a record 517 more locations – covering a further 2.7 million homes and businesses.
Robert Thorburn, Openreach partnership director for Scotland, said: “Our rollout of full fibre broadband is a huge infrastructure success story.
“We won’t be stopping any time soon, we now plan to build even further across Scotland, to more city locations, towns and our most rural communities.
“Our engineers are working at a rapid pace despite the huge complexities of an engineering project on this scale, stretching from Shetland to Stranraer.”
Employment and Investment Minister Tom Arthur said: “Digital infrastructure is a key enabler to support economic growth right across Scotland, it’s why the Scottish Government is making record investment in broadband infrastructure this year, and we will continue to work alongside Openreach and other partners to continue improving and extending our digital network to benefit communities and businesses across the country.
“As a signatory of Scotland’s Full Fibre Charter, Openreach is committed to accelerating and prioritising rollout of the technology.”
The latest plans are part of Openreach’s £15bn project to upgrade the UK’s broadband infrastructure – making gigabit-capable technology available to 25 million homes and businesses by the end of 2026, including 6.2 million in harder to reach, more remote and rural areas.
The full list of locations being announced for full fibre upgrade today is:
Local authority |
Area for upgrade |
Aberdeen City |
Bieldside |
Aberdeenshire |
Insch |
Argyll and Bute |
Tobermory |
City of Edinburgh |
Pentland |
Dundee City |
Fairmuir |
Falkirk |
Banknock |
Fife |
Balmullo |
Glasgow City |
Possil |
Highland |
Evanton |
Inverclyde |
Port Glasgow (Newark) |
Perth and Kinross |
Invergowrie |
Renfrewshire |
Lochwinnoch |
South Lanarkshire |
Blantyre |
West Lothian |
Livingston Bridge |
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