Scotland Stops £43m Gigabit Broadband Tender for Fife, Perth and Kinross

ISPreview has uncovered that the Scottish Government (SG) have stopped their tender for a supplier to deliver on the proposed £43m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme in Fife, Perth and Kinross (Lot 4 – Scotland). This had been expected to help expand full fibre (FTTP) connectivity to an estimated 28,441 premises in hard-to-reach rural areas.

The SG is already working to expand FTTP coverage in these areas as part of their existing £600m Reaching 100% (R100) contract with Openreach (BT), which is due to reach completion by 2027/28. But that will still leave some premises unserved by gigabit-capable broadband, which is where the follow-on Project Gigabit scheme – supported by the UK Government (Building Digital UK) – was expected to focus.

The new £43.14m (state aid) Project Gigabit procurement for Fife, Perth and Kinross (Lot 4 – Scotland) launched at the start of this year (here) and was aiming to award a chosen supplier in September 2025 (estimate). The contract would then remain in force for approximately 11 years – comprising a build period of approximately 4 years, followed by an operational period of at least 7 years. “It is the intention that the build period will be completed by the end of 2029,” said the original contract notice.

In our earlier report we noted how several network operators had a presence in the area, including Openreach, Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre), Hyperoptic, Netomnia, GoFibre, CityFibre and Highland Broadband (Lothian Broadband). But we also suspected that most of those players either lacked the funding or had little interest in bidding on this sort of contract, including Openreach which tends to prefer cross-regional Type C procurements (Lot 4 was Type B – Regional).

However, this week saw the SG quietly update their contract notice for the ongoing procurement, which changed its status to be listed as “not awarded“, apparently due to a “discontinuation of procedure“. In short, the SG had chosen to put the process on ice, albeit without giving much in the way of an explanation for what will inevitably cause a noticeable delay. But we were later informed that it was due to the strong impact of existing commercial builds.

A Scottish Government spokesperson told ISPreview:

“The most recent data provided by broadband suppliers shows there has been a significant increase in the number of premises which have been delivered to or are now included in commercial build plans since the Contract Notice for the Fife, Perth and Kinross procurement area was published in January 2025.

It is positive to see such an increase in commercially-funded broadband roll out and this provides an opportunity for public subsidy to be refocused to where it is needed most.

In agreement with the UK Government, we have therefore discontinued the procurement for Fife, Perth and Kinross in its current form and will engage with the supplier market to determine interest in bidding for a revised procurement in this area. The outcome of these discussions will inform next steps.”

Despite what the statement says, we aren’t aware of any major new commercial builds taking place in this part of Scotland, at least not any that have surfaced since after the related procurement began. But both Openreach and Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre) are still fairly active across the same patch and so it may be that the SG is also reflecting build plans that were released just before the procurement began too.

In addition, ISPreview also queried whether the separate, albeit related, £40.7m Project Gigabit procurement for Orkney & Shetland (here) was still ongoing and unaffected by the issues above. The SG told us that the procurement for Orkney and Shetland is indeed “unaffected by this decision“.