Scottish Government Upgrades Broadband Coverage Checker UPDATE
The Scottish Government put out a brief notice this week to say that their “upgraded address checker … is now live” for broadband coverage, which apparently “now includes more detailed info on access and our delivery programmes“, albeit seemingly without providing any further specifics to better explain what’s changed.
The checker itself can be found here – https://broadbandchecker.service.gov.scot – and to our eyes the output is still fairly basic. In particular, we note that if your area hasn’t yet been reached by a gigabit-capable broadband service, but it is PLANNED to be covered, then the checker still doesn’t provide any indication of when that roll-out is expected to take place.
Scotland currently has two major gigabit-broadband focused roll-out programmes. Firstly, there’s the R100 £697m Reaching 100% (R100) project with Openreach (BT), which aims to expand full fibre (FTTP) coverage to a further 113,000 hard to reach premises by March 2028 (here). After that there are also several recent Project Gigabit contracts with GoFibre and Openreach, which should reach another 139,00 premises (combined) over the next few years with a UK public investment of around £288m (here, here and here).
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UPDATE 31st Oct 2025
The latest project newsletter provides the necessary detail on what’s changed.
The update introduces the Borders and East Lothian contract area, which is being delivered by GoFibre, and the national framework, which Openreach are rolling out and targets parts of the Highlands and Islands, Central, and South of Scotland. Additional Project Gigabit contracts will be added to the checker as they move into the build phase.
The tool now provides detailed information on:
- Superfast and gigabit-capable broadband availability
- R100 programme roll-out
- Project Gigabit roll-out
- Which supplier is involved (GoFibre or Openreach)
- Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) eligibility
- Active SBVS suppliers [voucher]
Two new explainer videos are also now available on YouTube.
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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As a Scottish citizen, this website is actually such a waste of resources.
You enter a postcode and it doesn’t list WHO the providers are but instead tells you to ask a neighbour or check for a flyer. Such a waste.
I second this. I’m connected via an altnet who used SBVS to connect me with Full Fibre. No mention of them when I enter my address other than Gigabit Broadband is available.
I enter my neighbours address which says a SBVS voucher is available and then lists the same altnet as a supplier operating in the area.
Surely this tool should tell you exactly who has connected a premise using SBVS at the very least.
You want the Scottish Government to give you their favourite ISP?
By your same argument, you could say Openreach and GoFibre are the Scottish Government’s favourite ISPs as they are listed on the checker if Gigabit Broadband is shown as available with a note saying check availability on their website. This is entirely misleading.
System still not up to date as my premises still only shows super fast broadband ( above 30 meg connection) which I could never obtained ,luckily I am now on fibre by openreach ,if they are going to upgrade there check please get it correct
The website is useless as a checker. Sure, it might tell you that you have access to FTTP or that it is on the way, but they can’t be bothered to name the provider(s) that are building such a network in the area, so unless you already know who it is (one postcode I tested, because it is where a family member stays, is known to be Highland Broadband, but theoretically it could be Openreach in a few years because of their work), you will struggle to find a way to sign up to it (unless you’re buying a home from someone who has already had the network fitted). Scottish Government almost certainly know who the provider is, so they should provide that detail on the checker.
“You can now get gigabit-capable broadband
Gigabit-capable broadband is available for your address.”
I don’t know where ScotGov are getting their data, but if they have handed over any of our monies to obtain it they’ve been had! Clicking through to the mentioned Ofcom site shows the expected “superfast” 70 Mbps result for the highest available speed.
And I didn’t even use a postcode I know of where only the odd numbers are connected to the OHP…
More helpful than previous checkers have been! It does at least now say that my address in East Lothian is part of plans for gigabit capable broadband (we’re part of Openreach’s Type C Scotland call off) and that once a planned engineer’s survey has been completed they’ll be able to give a better idea of when we might get fibre. Still not holding my breath…. but it feels a bit less like we’ve been forgotten about.
The checker seems confused – claims my folks have gigabit broadband but then it starts talking about “if’s”… “If Openreach built the connection”… “If GoFibre built the connection”… etc etc, and then directs you to Ofcom’s website to check speeds (which confirms there is nothing more than 80Mbps VDSL2). The whole thing seems illogical and confusing. Gigabit is not available according to DSLchecker and ISP websites as well, and it’s not available I know that much. Whatever this Scottish checker is doing it doesn’t seem to know the story.
The checker appears to agree with the notification I recently received from Openreach explaining a delay to the previous plan for rollout in my area within a year.
Sadly an estimate now for a 2030 delivery of FTTP. I hope Zen still honour the lifetime pricing for my FTTC connection as some sort of compensation for my disappointment.
Another day and another update from Openreach! Today, they state that engineers are upgrading in my area and that I will soon be able to order FTTP.
So the Scottish checker says 2030 and Openreach have told me Xmas 2026, then within 2026 and now soon!
So many updates and so many dates plucked out of the air.
YAY!
This finally tells me what I wanted to know.
Access to gigabit-capable broadband is coming
You already have access to superfast broadband, but gigabit-capable broadband is planned for your area. We expect it to be available in 2028.
What happens next
GoFibre will complete an engineering survey of your local area.
Once the survey is complete, we can give you a more accurate estimate of when gigabit-capable broadband access will be available. Check back here for updates.
I finally have an indication of when to access fibre, and who it is being provided by.
When I did a check for a business premises in the centre of Edinburgh (which I provide IT support for), the ScotGov site says that they “can now get gigabit-capable broadband”. However, when I asked the business’s ISP, I am told that only FTTC is available and the fastest speed we can get is ~76 Mps…