Update on R100 Progress in Scotland and Possible Voucher Delay

The Scottish Government has issued a small update on the progress of their £600m R100 (Reaching 100%) project with BT, which is working to extend “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) coverage. The good news is that the first Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) build is about to begin, but the voucher scheme may be delayed.

Just to recap. Scotland has so far awarded two of its three contracts – Central (LOT 2) and Southern (LOT 3) – to BT (Openreach). Meanwhile an on-going legal challenge by UK ISP Gigaclear against the proposed award of LOT 1 (North Scotland / Highlands) to BT continues to delay that part of the project (here).

Otherwise Openreach’s engineers are expected to reach around half of the target premises in LOT 2 and 3 – approximately 23,000 in Central and 12,000 in the South – by the end of 2021, with the majority of the build completed by the end of 2023 (LOT 3 by summer 2024). The vast majority of this is being delivered using gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology (see here and here).

According to the SG’s latest statement to telecommunications operators, Openreach’s engineering surveys for LOT 2 and 3 are coming to an end and physical construction of the new network is now beginning (July/August 2020). But their related plan for a “nationwide superfast voucher scheme” is now due to launch “later in the year,” which sounds further away than the previously mentioned “summer” launch (here).

At this stage we still don’t know much about the voucher scheme, except for a few bits. Anyone (homes and businesses) who will not be able to access superfast broadband through the R100 project by the end of 2021 – even if R100 will ultimately reach them – will be eligible for a voucher. We expect that this will be conducted alongside the UK Government’s RGC scheme (here), which could increase the value of such vouchers for rural areas.

We also got a small update on the original £463m Digital Scotland project, which has now largely completed (here). Apparently some FTTC/P build is still on-going across the Highlands & Islands side of that contract, which is expected to continue into November/December 2020 before ending. R100 is obviously the follow-on scheme for this.

Finally, there was a brief mention of the £25m 4G Infill Programme, which has been rolling out new 4G mobile masts across rural parts of Scotland. Like so many things, this was suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis, but the update states that the SG and their supplier – WHP Telecoms Ltd – were starting to safely resume build from June 2020. Credits to one of our members, JTScotland, for spotting this update.

UPDATE 10:42am

Thanks also to Steve for pointing out that the Gigaclear legal action (CA172/19 Gigaclear Ltd &c v The Scottish Ministers) is scheduled tomorrow (Wed 5th Aug) for a Procedural Hearing between 9.30am and 10.00am.