
Edinburgh-based UK alternative network provider GoFibre, which is building full fibre (FTTP) broadband across rural parts of Scotland and Northern England, has today announced that the first premises have just gone live under their £105m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit contract to cover 63,000 hard-to-reach premises in North East Scotland (100,000 if you include their commercial roll-out).
Just to recap. The original contract, which aims to benefit hard-to-reach homes and businesses across parts of Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Angus, Dundee, Highland, Moray and Perth & Kinross, was first awarded back in July 2025 (here) and GoFibre entered the build phase for this back in February 2026 (here).
Families, farmers and local businesses in Ezdell, Inverbervie and Longforgan are among the first to be connected, with additional premises in Auchenblae and Letham expected to go live in later this month. The rollout will help communities stay connected through the summer and beyond, as demand for reliable, lightning-fast full fibre broadband continues to grow.
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Over 500 properties in Longforgan will also have the opportunity to connect to the GoFibre network as part of the build programme, among other locations. The major infrastructure investment is expected to unlock economic growth and create 30 local jobs directly during build, with up to 180 jobs created across the lifetime of contract, including through subcontractors.
UK Telecoms Minister, Liz Lloyd, said:
“Whether it’s keeping up with Scotland at the World Cup, managing the day‑to‑day on the farm, or growing a business, faster broadband can make life easier in so many ways.”
Through Project Gigabit, UK government funding is bringing fast, reliable broadband to some of the hardest-to-reach parts of Scotland. That means stronger local businesses, more jobs for rural economies and better-connected communities.”
Neil Conaghan, CEO of GoFibre, said:
“It’s a really proud moment for us to see the first homes and businesses go live from our latest build phase in the North East.
These are places that have too often had to put up with slower, less reliable connections. Full fibre changes that by levelling the playing field, helping local communities to stay connected and local businesses to stay competitive.
We’re focused on making sure rural and underserved communities can access the same quality of broadband you’d expect in Scotland’s cities, and we’ll keep building at pace as we expand across the region and invest in communities.”
The new deployment will expand upon GoFibre’s existing network footprint in the same area, which consists of around 15,300 premises in Angus (including Montrose, Forfar and Kirriemuir) and 9,600 premises in Aberdeenshire (including Laurencekirk, Stonehaven and Newtonhill) – mostly build via commercial investment.
The provider currently expects to deploy their new full fibre based broadband network to reach a UK footprint of 250,000 premises “in the next 3 years“ (i.e. around mid-2028) and they were home to a total of around 15,000 customers as of June 2025.
New customers can expect to pay from £22.50 per month for speeds of 150Mbps (30Mbps upload) on a 24-month minimum term, which rises to £34.50 for their top 1000Mbps (100Mbps upload) tier. Take note that £200 of Switching Credit is available for those looking to migrate while still stuck in an existing contract with another ISP, although monthly prices also increase by £3 each December.
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I’m hearing rumours that things aren’t so rosey at GoFibre – the company finances are sitting in a precarious position, management has been spending big, growth is slow and this Project Gigabit contract is all that’s propping them up. If they do fail, Openreach will obviously pick up where they stopped, but what about areas that have been built already using public subsidy?
Yes, I hear that too. They are 60% overbuilt in areas they’ve commercially deployed in and selling broadband at circa £25+ VAT is going to take a few centuries to pay back the £300m they owe their funders… Utter madness giving Gov contracts to basket case companies like GoFibre and Highland Broadband when it’s obvious they’ll both go bust. The people in the Scottish Government approving these contracts must be as blind as Nicola Sturgeon!!!
How can they sustain the business with 15,000 customers? Aren’t they pretty top heavy with ex-Openreach people?
Since the gofibre award for the north east my Openreach fantasy checker has dropped from we’re building in your area in the next year back to no plans to build in your area.
Maybe coincidence as I know OR plans do change but hey, faint optimism was better than zero information from go fibre.