GoFibre Win Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout Contract for Scottish Borders UPDATE

Edinburgh-based ISP GoFibre has secured a third contract under the UK government’s £5bn Project Gigabit scheme, which is worth £26.2m (state aid) and will see them expand their gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to cover around 11,000 premises across hard-to-reach rural areas in the Scottish Borders and East Lothian regions.

Just to recap. The Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme is currently working to extend 1Gbps download speeds (200Mbps+ uploads) to reach “nationwide” coverage (c. 99%) by around 2030. As part of that, GoFibre has already secured two smaller ‘Local’ (Type A) deployment contracts for Teesdale (Lot 4.01) and North Northumberland (Lot 34.01) in North England.

The good news today is that they’ve now added a third ‘Local’ deployment contract, albeit this time in Scotland and covering 11,000 premises across poorly served parts of the Scottish Borders and East Lothian regions. The expansion of their FTTP network is expected to reach a number of remote rural communities, such as Athelstaneford and Innerwick in East Lothian, and St Abbs, Broughton and Ettrickbridge in the Scottish Borders.

Just to be clear, this deployment is targeted at premises that are not currently expected to be covered by gigabit broadband connectivity via either existing commercial projects or the Scottish Government’s £600m Reaching 100% (R100) project with Openreach (BT). Otherwise, detailed planning and surveying work on the new contract will begin immediately, with the first connections expected in the Autumn of 2025.

Chris Bryant, UK Government Minister for Telecoms and Data, said:

“As technological advancements race ahead and revolutionise our day-to-day lives, we cannot afford to leave anyone behind.

It is fantastic to see this UK Government-funded gigabit investment being delivered in Scotland for the first time, not only bringing thousands of people the fastest broadband networks on the market and levelling the playing field but also helping us realise our mission to boost economic growth and improve living standards across the whole country, under the PM’s Plan for Change.”

Neil Conaghan, CEO of GoFibre, said:

“As a Scottish company, born in the Borders, GoFibre is proud to be named as the delivery partner for the first Project Gigabit contract in Scotland, bringing transformative full fibre connectivity to thousands more homes and businesses across the region. This contract award marks a step-change in our ambition and footprint as a major Scottish telecommunications company.

We have a sterling track record of connecting communities across Scotland to our ultra-fast broadband network. Delivering this project will build on our successful delivery of Project Gigabit contracts in North Northumberland and Teesdale where we are delivering much-needed broadband in rural areas, ahead of schedule. We will bring all that expertise and GoFibre experience to this essential project for people in the Borders and East Lothian.”

Further Project Gigabit contracts for Scotland are due to be signed with other suppliers this year too, which will see gigabit broadband being delivered to tens of thousands more premises, including across rural parts of Aberdeenshire and the Morayshire Coast, Fife, Perth and Kinross, Orkney and Shetland.

Meanwhile, customers of the new GoFibre service can expect to pay from £25 per month for a 150Mbps (30Mbps upload) package on a 24-month term with an included wireless router, which rises to £39.50 for their top 1000Mbps (100Mbps upload) plan. The latter also comes with a bonus Wi-Fi extender (this can optionally be taken on other plans at extra cost).

UPDATE 21st Feb 2025 @ 1:53pm

The government has published a page for this contract, which states that the premises figure is “up to 10,700“.