Openreach has announced four new locations in Scotland will receive high-speed futureproof broadband services over the next 12-months.

Kilmarnock residents will benefit from the new high-speed broadband network, while residents in Bathgate, Broxburn and Whitburn in West Lothian also set for speed boosts.

Across the UK over the next 12-months, Openreach said it will build high-speed broadband services in 36 new locations. Work to install networks in Scotland have been prioritised, the organisation added, after the Scottish Government announced it will extend rates reliefs on new fibre broadband networks.

Openreach chief executive, Clive Selley, said: “We’re pressing ahead with our investment and Openreach engineers are now building in communities all over the UK, keeping us on track to deliver against the bigger ambitions we set out in May.

“The UK Government wants to see a nationwide full-fibre network and we are keen to lead the way in helping them achieve that. We know that if it’s going to happen, Openreach will need to be at the front doing the heavy lifting, so we’re working hard to build a commercially viable plan.”

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Paul Wheelhouse, connectivity minister for the Scottish Government, added: “We listened to industry and provided 10 years rates relief, five years more than the UK Government, with the aim of encouraging new investment in Scotland’s fibre infrastructure network.

“I am pleased to see that decision yielding early results with this announcement by Openreach. Through the DSSB programme, we have seen the transformative effects that good quality digital connectivity can deliver for Scotland, and I hope the delivery of full-fibre infrastructure to Bathgate, Broxburn, Kilmarnock and Whitburn will deliver similar results.”

Overall, 75 locations across the UK have now been included in Openreach’s multi-billion-pound Fibre First programme. Since the launch of the programme in February 2019, Openreach engineers have deployed a whopping 2.6 million kilometres of fibre – enough to reach the moon and back three times.

The organisation also raised its target for full-fibre connections from three million to four million premises by March 2021, with a long-term ambition of reaching around 15 million homes and businesses by the mid-2020s.