Scotland Reveals Next 24 Local Areas for “Fibre Broadband” Upgrades

The Digital Scotland project, which is working with BT to deploy “high-speed fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) services to 85% of premises in Scotland by the end of 2015/16 and 95% by the end of 2017 March 2018, has announced the next 24 local authority areas (73,000 premises) that will benefit.

So far an additional 394,000 homes and businesses have already benefitted under the scheme and at completion this should hit around 750,000. But in the very near future we could see this target being enhanced, albeit only once the Scottish Government has actually decided upon how to spend the available funding (here).

Until then the first contract with BT is currently running at a rate of 7,000 more premises a week in Scotland and the next batch of planned upgrades to be confirmed includes plenty of rural locations, from the towns around Loch Ness to the picturesque Highland fishing village of Mallaig (see below for a full list).

John Swinney, Scottish Government Deputy First Minister, said:

“It is fantastic news that a further 73,000 homes and businesses will be able to receive fibre broadband thanks to the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme. Every day we are continuing to build on our digital infrastructure –supporting the Scottish Government’s commitment to deliver first-rate connectivity in Scotland by 2020, ensuring we are a world class digital nation.

By reaching out to those communities who would not have been covered by the commercial market – in towns and into some of our most rural areas – we are ensuring that the connections which are made will bring many benefits to the Scottish people both at home and in business.”

We have pasted the list of all the newly planned upgrades below, although sadly there was no specific timescale included with this data. Many of the areas are new, although quite a few are also infill (i.e. extending FTTC/P coverage in areas that have already been partially upgraded).

As usual this list is tentative (subject to change) as circumstances change on the ground and not all premises within the selected exchange areas will be able to access the new service once it goes live, although this usually improves over time.