The Scottish government unveiled that across its two flagship broadband rollout programmes, over one million premises across Scotland have received improved connectivity. 

The first program was the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) project, which received £463 million in funding and ran from 2014 to 2020. This initiative expanded fibre-based broadband, to cover an additional 950,600 premises, surpassing initial expectations by over 150,000 premises.

The more recent ‘Reaching 100%’ (R100) project, with a budget of £600 million, involves extending gigabit-capable “full fibre” (FTTP) networks to 114,000 premises lacking access to superfast broadband speeds by 2027/28. Currently, R100 has already reached 48,000 premises, utilising a combination of vouchers, contracted builds, and overspill.

According to Thinkbroadband data, 96.14% of premises in Scotland now have access to superfast broadband (30Mbps+), while 76.06% can access gigabit-capable broadband (1000Mbps+), dropping to 58.78% for FTTP lines.

“Fast and reliable broadband has never been so important: it is an increasingly vital tool for everything from work and leisure, healthcare and education. This is precisely why the Scottish Government has prioritised investment in digital connectivity in the 2024-25 Budget. Indeed, despite telecoms being reserved, we have now committed to investing more than £650 million across the DSSB and R100 programmes, recognising that faster broadband is a key building block for a green and growing economy,” said Mairi McAllan, wellbeing economy secretary.

“Enabling more than one million connections to faster broadband is a landmark achievement in delivering this vision, and we are fully committed to ensuring as many people as possible can benefit from the advantages of future-proofed digital infrastructure to run businesses and services across the country.”

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However, challenges remain, particularly in rural areas, where only around 30% currently have access to gigabit speeds. To address this gap, the UK Government’s £5 billion Project Gigabit programme has allocated £450 million to extend 1Gbps speeds to remote rural areas, with an estimated 410,000 premises in Scotland requiring public funding support.

The Scottish Government is set to launch its first Project Gigabit procurement for the Borders and East Lothian areas, aiming to reach over 11,000 premises. Further procurements are planned for regions including Dumfries and Galloway, Fife, Perth and Kinross, Aberdeen, Dundee and Moray Coast, and Orkney and Shetland.

“Scotland’s digital journey is a story of resilience and progress. From adapting to remote work and learning during the pandemic to expanding ultrafast internet access, we’ve come a long way. Today’s milestone marks a massive engineering success, connecting people and businesses from Shetland to Stranraer, and we’re proud of the part we’ve played through our work with the Scottish Government,” said Fraser Rowberry, chief engineer for Openreach Scotland.

“Change on this scale, reaching even the most rural areas, is a testament to teamwork and determination. Let’s celebrate our achievements as we keep reaching for better connectivity across Scotland.”