62,000 Premises in Scotland Benefit from R100 Fibre Broadband Build

The latest progress update on the Scottish Government’s state aid supported £600m Reaching 100% (R100) project with Openreach (BT), which is predominantly rolling out full fibre (FTTP) broadband, has revealed that a total of 62,000 premises in some of the hardest to reach parts of the country have now been reached (up from 57,000 last month).

Just to recap. The R100 scheme 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.

However, the figure of 62,000 premises 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 totals (explainer).

As previously reported (here), 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. The Scottish Government has also produced a new video to showcase the various stages of this roll-out.

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.

Sadly, 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 currently underway (here and here), with Openreach being almost certain to win some of them (they’re expected to scoop the hardest Type C / Cross-Regional contracts).

The associated Building Digital UK 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).