First minister Humza Yousaf sparked confusion in the Scottish Government last night after he reported to Parliament on the progress of the £600 million ‘Reaching 100%’ (R100) broadband upgrade project in collaboration with Openreach (BT).

According to him, while the project remains on track to complete the build out by 2028, he said the project had covered “more than 36,100 premises.” 

This contradicts figures from the Scottish Government’s Digital Scotland website in October 2023, which suggested a higher count of 42,000.

According to ISPreview the discrepancy appears to stem from the inclusion of “overspill” in the website’s reported figures, which catches extra premises covered by Openreach working in the same areas as the R100 build.

As it stands, approximately 96% of premises in Scotland have access to network speeds of over 30Mbps, and 74% have gigabit capable broadband. The R100 project aims to cover an additional 114,000 premises across three contract lots by March 2028. Lot 1 will cover 60,764 premises in North Scotland and the Highlands. Lot 2 will cover 32,216 premises by the end of 2024 in Central Scotland. And lot 3 will target 21,889 premises by the end of 2024 in Southern Scotland.

While the responsibility of the UK-wide Project Gigabit broadband rollout falls on the government at Westminster, the Scottish Government has invested an additional £592.2 million, with an additional £49.4m from the UK Government and £54.1m from BT. 

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During parliament, the first minister received some pushback from MP Douglas Lumsden, who said that the R100 scheme was meant to connect more than 114,000 premises by 2021, and only 29% had been connected, with figures for Northern premises dropping to 15%.

“Does the first minister accept that that abject failure by his government is leaving our rural communities behind?” he asked. “Will the R100 scheme be delayed any further?”

However, Yousaf reiterated the commitment to complete the R100 build by 2028, emphasising that over 36,100 premises have been connected, with the remainder to be phased in by 2028.