More than 65,000 homes and businesses now have better internet connectivity after a new Edinburgh broadband roll-out.

Scottish broadband provider CityFibre has hit a new milestone, now getting fast internet to thousands of Edinburgh residents as part of its £4bn Gigabit City investment programme.

Edinburgh is one of several cities in the UK to benefit from the Scottish programme aiming to create better broadband infrastructure and reach up to eight million homes and 800,000 businesses nationwide.

The company has so far invested £100m in Edinburgh to place the capital as one of the best digitally connected communities globally.

Neighbourhoods across Edinburgh set to benefit include Redford, Craiglockhart, Portobello, Wester Hailles, Kingsknowe, Corstorphine, Leith Links, Craigentinny, Piershill, Holyrood, Drylaw and Pilton.

Once the city-wide roll-out is completed in 2024, the majority of Edinburgh homes and business will have access to full fibre services, giving users a choice of internet service providers (ISPs).

Commenting on the news, Paul Wakefield, CityFibre’s City Manager for Edinburgh said: “CityFibre has been making great progress in Edinburgh since 2019 and it is fantastic that so many residents can now enjoy the benefits of having access to the fastest and most reliable broadband services available.

“We are using our state-of-the-art technology to build a brand-new network, ensuring that residents have access to the digital infrastructure needed to support their data needs for generations to come. Once the network goes live in an area the process for accessing it is very straightforward.

“I am delighted that residents connecting to our Edinburgh network already have the choice of three quality ISPs – launch partner Vodafone, plus TalkTalk and Zen, with at least one more to be added before the summer.”

Unlike copper-based ‘fibre broadband’, full-fibre networks use 100% fibre optic cables to carry data from homes and businesses directly to the point of connection.

This gives users consistently faster speeds for upload and download (up to 1,000 Mbps) and near limitless bandwidth.

As people have been, and continue to, work and study from home due to the impacts of the pandemic, a strong, fast, and stable internet connection is a priority for people living in Edinburgh.

As work is completed in each Edinburgh neighbourhood, ISPs will ‘light up the network’ and make available fast broadband packages available in terms of both data and price, CityFibre said.

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The roll-out of full-fibre internet across Scottish towns, cities and rural areas is already underway, with millions of homes benefitting from broadband installation projects and extensive funding.

A new deal worth up to £150 million was announced last week (February 24) to accelerate access to gigabit-capable fibre broadband across North Lanarkshire.

The move could see the money spent as part of a 15-year deal with Commsworld to transform North Lanarkshire Council’s digital infrastructure.

In January the Lothian Broadband Group (LBG) gained £20 million from the Scottish National Investment Bank to help combat rural digital inequality in Scotland.

The money comes in addition to £5m of new investment shared by the firm’s shareholders and is part of LBG’s plans to invest £75m to connect over 70k premises over the next four years.

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