Scotland set to benefit from lightning-fast broadband as top contract awarded for major infrastructure rollout

The vastly improved speeds will be a significant improvement for some of the most rural communities in the north east, including Aberdeenshire, Angus and parts of the Highlands.

Around 63,000 residential and commercial properties are expected to be connected to gigabit speeds by the summer of 2026, courtesy of Scottish internet service GoFibre, founded in Dumfries in 2017.

The £105million contract has been funded by the UK Government, but procured and delivered by the Scottish Government, off the back of a successful £25million GoFibre contract that saw 11,000 homes benefit from gigabit speeds in Scottish Borders and East Lothian.

A separate £157million contract was awarded to OpenReach to provide gigabit speeds to 65,000 properties in the Highlands and Outer Hebrides in May.

GoFibre CEO Neil Conaghan told GB News that the network upgrade projects are all about realising fixed line broadband as a residential and commercial utility, alongside water, gas and electricity.

He said: “At the moment in Scotland, approximately 70 to 71 per cent of properties are connected to full fibre, but the reality is that in a lot of rural communities, they’re simply too expensive for commercial companies to fund themselves without intervention from Government funds.

“Really, that’s what this project is about: it’s about making high-quality connectivity available to all the people - or as many people as possible - in Scotland.

“It’s really recognising that full fibre connectivity is a utility that people in the modern world need access to.”

In addition to the UK Government’s Project Gigabit rollout across the UK, the Scottish Government has been implementing its own plan to target properties that present challenges of the national connectivity reaching 100 per cent - it’s ‘R100’ program.

So far, consecutive SNP Governments have invested more than £600million in R100, with £52million coming from the UK Government and £53million of BT investment.

In a nation with 93 inhabited islands, Scotland’s stunning-yet-awkward terrain makes it one of the most ambitious and complex infrastructure rollouts in Europe.

Nevertheless, SNP Business Minister Richard Lochhead MSP says laying the groundwork in collaboration with the UK Government “that’s thinking likewise to make sure Scotland doesn’t fall behind”.

He told GB News: “This is reserved to the UK Government but we had to step in through economic development powers to build our own project, so it’s really good now that we have a UK Government thinking likewise that we don’t want Scotland to fall behind.”

When asked about other communities in the Highlands and Islands, arguably more remote than those in the north east, the minister says the GoFibre contract marks the beginning of a “national rollout” across rural Scotland.

“For instance,” he says, “that has involved 16 sub-sea cables to islands in Scotland to make sure islands - who have specific challenges getting infrastructure in place - are also supported.

“So there has been a real leap forward in terms of digital connectivity in Scotland in the last few years and island communities, rural communities and commercial sectors delivering for urban communities.”

In May, researchers Statista placed the UK 42nd in global broadband speed rankings with a median fixed broadband speed of 141 Mbps - half the speed of South Korea (median 288 Mbps) and crushed by Singapore, who top the list with an average 372 Mbps speed.

The Scottish Government says the R100 scheme is already delivering network speeds 30 times faster than superfast broadband to residential properties “in 99 per cent of cases”.

Both the UK and Scottish Governments have voiced their determination that Scotland doesn’t fall behind the rest of the United Kingdom, but the Business Minister admits “there’s still some way to go” to ensure communities get to enjoy modern speeds for a modern age.