Homes and businesses in seven towns across the north and north-east are to be included in the latest network from Openreach, giving them access to full-fibre broadband for the first time.
The latest £95 million investment by the digital network provider will mean most places in Alford, Portsoy, Cruden Bay, Lhanbryde, Inverness, Muir of Ord and North Kessock will be able to access the service.
The company previously announced plans to upgrade 27 towns and villages in Aberdeenshire, with 40,000 premises in the city and shire now able to connect.
Openreach is the UK’s largest digital network provider, and is used by customers of BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone.
Finance and Economy Secretary Kate Forbes said: “Digital connectivity is more vital than ever and critical to Scotland’s plans for a strong, green and fair economic recovery.
“Our Reaching 100% (R100) programme – including our investment of £600 million in the R100 contracts – ensures that everyone in Scotland can access superfast broadband.
“With Openreach’s latest commercial investment of £95 million, this will ensure more than 50 of our communities across Scotland will be able to access even faster full-fibre broadband.”
Full fibre ‘would boost economy’
Recent research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research estimated that connecting everyone in Scotland to full fibre would boost the economy by £4.5 billion.
By the end of 2026, the company plans to reach a total of 25 million homes and businesses in the UK – including more than six million in parts of the country defined by Ofcom as hardest to serve.
Robert Thorburn, partnership director for Openreach in Scotland, said: “Nobody’s building faster, further or to a higher standard than Openreach, and we’ve already reached six million homes and businesses with ultrafast full fibre technology, including 480,000 in Scotland.
“It’s proving popular as well, with nearly 23 per cent already choosing to start using it.
“Our engineers and build partners are reaching more communities every week and we’re not just building in cities and urban areas.
“Many rural and hard to reach communities are already benefitting and we plan to reach many more in the coming months and years.”