Lothian Broadband Expands FTTP Network to 3 Stirlingshire Villages

Scottish ISP Lothian Broadband (LBN), which is building a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) network across rural parts of East Lothian, the Highlands and Fife, has announced that they’re extending into the rural areas surrounding the city of Stirling – starting with 3,400 premises across three villages.

The latest rollout expansion will utilise funding from the UK Government’s (BDUK) Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme in order to build their full fibre network across 3,400 homes and businesses in the villages of Cowie, Fallin and Plean. Assuming all goes to plan, then the first customer installs are expected to begin in October 2023 and the roll-out could be completed by the end of 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 present LBN claims that their network already passes approximately 10,000 premises – including both their old fixed wireless and new FTTP networks, which we think is out-of-date as that’s the same exact figure they gave in April 2023 (here). But they’ll need to move faster in order to achieve their next goal of passing 100,000 premises by the end of 2024.

Gavin Rodgers, LBN CEO, said:

“We are thrilled to be connecting Stirling’s surrounding villages to the UK’s fastest broadband network.

With support from the Scottish Government, Building Digital UK and the Scottish National Investment Bank, we are on track to complete the network build making all 3,400 premises ready for service by the end of 2023, further transforming connectivity across Scotland.”

Sir John Whittingdale, UK Minister for Digital Infrastructure, said:

“Thanks to LBN, local residents in and around Stirling will now have access to faster and more reliable internet than any other area of the UK – helping to boost connectivity, fuel economic growth and create jobs. Importantly, this shows that no matter how rural the area, lightning speed broadband can still reach homes and businesses and the UK Government is determined to bring ultrafast gigabit broadband to every corner of the UK by 2030, backed by up to £210 million in gigabit vouchers for people in remote locations.”

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.