Lothian Broadband Boost Funding for Highlands Full Fibre Rollout

Scottish ISP Lothian Broadband (LNBL), which is building a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) network across rural parts of East and Mid Lothian, has announced that they’ve completed a £20m senior debt raise arranged by Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) – taking total investment capacity up to £50m for 2023.

The provider, which also operates the Highland Broadband sub-brand across the Highlands region, originally began building a new full fibre network to cater for the East Lothian village of Gifford, but they’ve since expanded into various other locations such as Longniddry, Pencaitland, Gullane, East Linton, Pathhead and more.

At the last update, we understood that Lothian Broadband planned to invest £75m to cover 70,000+ premises in the “fibre gap” of Scotland’s rural communities and small towns by around the end of 2026. But today’s update notes that they’ve already raised £50m for 2023 and are now “on target to pass 100,000 rural Scottish premises by the end of 2024.”

However, the operator has so far only passed 10,000 premises, which means their rollout will need to ramp up a lot over the next 1-2 years in order to hit the new target (it’s not uncommon for builds to rapidly accelerate after the training wheels phase). But take note that we suspect this isn’t all full fibre coverage, since they might be including the reach of their fixed wireless network too.

Gavin Rodgers, CEO of Lothian Broadband Networks, said:

“This new funding from the Bank takes our overall investment capacity for the year ahead up to £50m.

This further support from the Bank highlights our effectiveness at working with our partners in government and local communities to transform connectivity in rural Scotland.”

Nicola Douglas, Executive Director at the Bank, said:

“Ultrafast broadband has a transforming impact, boosting economic growth, reducing inequalities, and helping education.

Our investment in LBN is already making a difference for both rural businesses and homes and by supporting this state-of-the-art fibre roll out we are future proofing the network.”

Residential customers of the service can expect to pay from £34.99 per month for an unlimited 100Mbps (symmetric) service on a 12 or 24-month term, which rises up to £49.99 (reduced from £74.99) for a 900Mbps service or £64.99 (reduced from £89.99) for 2000Mbps! Various phone, pay TV and mesh WiFi solutions can also be added at an extra cost.