R100 – Openreach Bring FTTP Broadband to 57K Extra Premises in Scotland
Network operator Openreach (BT) has issued a progress update on their state aid supported £600m Reaching 100% (R100) project with the Scottish Government, which has now extended their gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband network to more than 57,000 of Scotland’s hardest to connect homes and businesses.
The project has already extended FTTP to rural properties in over 200 places during only the first half of this year, from the Shetland islands of Yell and Whalsay to Stranraer and Wigtown in Dumfries and Galloway and across the Atlantic to Argyll’s Isle of Seil. The R100 build is next due to start in dozens more places before the end of 2024, including the Hebridean island of Mull, Westray and Rousay in Orkney and Kilchoan in the Highlands.
Just to recap. The R100 project ultimately aims to reach another 114,000 premises – split across three contracts – in areas that lack access to “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) by March 2028. LOT 1 (North Scotland and the Highlands) is expected to cover 60,764 premises (100% via FTTP) by 2027/28, while LOT 2 (Central Scotland) will reach 32,216 (95.6% via FTTP and the rest FTTC) by 2023/24 and LOT 3 (Southern Scotland) targets 21,889 (100% via FTTP) by 2024/25.
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However, the figure of 57,000 premises being given out by Openreach today (up from 52,000 in April 2024) almost certainly includes more than just the contracted R100 build, which is because the Scottish Government have recently made a habit out of including the impacts from gigabit vouchers and overspill into their R100 total (explainer).
Katie Milligan, Openreach CCO and Chair of its Scotland Board, said:
“The R100 build is a monumental effort to upgrade and connect Scotland’s most challenging locations. More than a thousand people are working on the build, with three million metres of new cable installed so far this year – enough to run up and down the A9 seven times.
Our teams are all set for a busy summer, expanding full fibre infrastructure in areas like Moray and Stirling alongside more island upgrades. Protecting nature and wildlife is paramount in these sensitive rural and remote environments. We’re seeing really positive, steady growth in take-up across the country, so I’d encourage people to check our website to see if they can upgrade.”
Tom Arthur, SG Employment and Investment Minister, said:
“The R100 programme is a critical part of the upgrade to full fibre technology. As one of the most ambitious and complex digital infrastructure programmes in Europe, it is delivering future-proofed digital connectivity across the country and enabling more homes and businesses – including in our island and rural communities – to access a fast and reliable connection.
It’s exciting that thousands more premises are now able to access a full fibre connection, and we’ll continue to work with Openreach to deliver further connections up and down the country.”
At present 77.6% of premises in Scotland can access a gigabit-capable (1Gbps download) broadband ISP network and this falls to 61.3% when only looking at FTTP technology (here). Ofcom predicts (here) that Scotland’s full fibre coverage will reach around 78-83% by May 2026, while gigabit-capable broadband (FTTP and Hybrid Fibre Coax / cable) should deliver 83-85% by that same date.
Naturally, the eventual completion of R100 will still leave a gap to fill, but resolving that will fall to the UK Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme. Some £450m (here) has already been allocated for this and several procurements are now underway (example). The associated BDUK agency has previously estimated that some 410,000 premises across Scotland may need support from public funding to help them gain access to such speeds (here).
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Has Openreach released any data on its 2024 Q2 build yet? I’m guessing they must be hitting around 15 million about now.
Expected later this week.
I live in Dumfries and Galloway in a village of about 8 properties. Openreach came to this village and connected every property except mine. I asked why, they said that it’s because I was more than 150m from the next nearest connected property (I’m 167 meters from the property nearest me). No other issues, straight runs, flat ground. They even already dug the trench down my driveway, they just refuse to connect us. They’ve said they have no plans to return to this village.
They’re definitely not connecting 100% of properties in southern Scotland (lot 3).
I would be interested to find our where you are to see if we can help – to be clear Openreach are not tasked with delivering 100% connectivity to every property in Scotland, but supporting the respective UK and Scottish Governments on their gigabit ambitions. Positively, we have delivered Full fibre to amore than 7,700 homes and businesses so far across Dumfries and Galloway with thousands more premises scoped over the next year. If you want to connect to me and hare more info with me, I can check the situation out – or visit https://www.scotlandsuperfast.com/ and just check whether there is a scheduled plan. Happy to help.
Same for me because my property is in a 10 flat development, an old building completely converted into flats in 2007-2008, but Openreach’s MDU team requests an asbestos free report.
The very same company that installed the very FTTC copper line in each new flat…
@Mr Thorburn, happy to connect with you to discuss further.
Let me know how.
“from the Shetland islands of Yell and Whalsay to Stranraer and Wigtown in Dumfries and Galloway and across the Atlantic to Argyll’s Isle of Seil.”
We are on the Isle of Seil and this is news to us! The BT checker shows nothing – how can we find out more??
We have connected the first cluster of properties on the Isle of Seil – so I would suggest checking the Openreach website https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/ultrafast-full-fibre-broadband or with your service provider to find out if you are one of the properties able to get Full fibre.
https://www.scotlandsuperfast.com/ – will also be able to advise if your property is in a build plan.
Hope that helps…
If you look on the Scottish roadworks portal there is a lot of activity on Seil and Luing. Speaking to the R100 team it looks as though they will miss my property due to the incorrect assumption that we already get super fast speeds. I’m informed that this has now been updated but have missed the opportunity to be included in R100 and can only claim the SBVS voucher scheme. From what I can gather it will only benefit those properties nearest the edges of the island. The pub being one of them. This is because the cabinets are located near the post office and properties near by “already receive super fast speeds”
Isle of Seil as in Balvicar exchange I can see just 22 properties out of around 400 live so far. So unless lots more since the last sweep its a bit of a stretch to name area without being clear on the scale.
Thanks Robert but are we talking about the same thing FTTP? I’ve looked at both those links but says not available. Is there some kind of rollout calendar?
It looks like the only postcode on island of Seil itself with fttp at the moment is PA34 4RG. Looks to be around 7 properties. More to follow in next 3-4 months hopefully.