The city, home to nearly 50,000 residents, joins more than 2,800 UK towns and cities as part of Openreach’s full fibre broadband network build plans, 350 of which are in Scotland. 

The new network rollout in Perth is expected to begin this winter and continue into 2024.It will see thousands of people access gigabit-capable speeds, meaning a speed of 1000 Mbps. The threshold for good speeds is typically around 100 Mbps, making the upgrade a significant jump. 

Installing full fibre broadband involves bringing a physical cable to the premises of connection, a lengthy process with major payoffs. Once connected, the fibre optic cable can be linked to the user’s service provider of choice such as BT, SKY, or Vodafone.

According to Openreach the move will bring a “big economic boost,” to Perth by future-proofing resident’s connectivity for decades to come. 

According to figures from a CEBR report, connecting the UK to fibre broadband could deliver a £60 billion boost to the UK economy by unlocking better ways of working, new opportunities, and smarter public services. The figures show more than 400,000 people could work from home, and 270,000 people could move from the cities to rural areas, re-stimulating rural economies. 

Along with Perth, 18 other locations were announced today to receive the service, which will benefit roughly 19,000 city homes and businesses. According to Openreach, its plan is to build full fibre to 25 million homes and businesses across the UK by the end of 2026. 

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“We’re reaching more communities than ever and our highly-skilled engineers and build partners are working hard to deliver some of the fastest and most reliable broadband available,” said Fraser Rowberry, chief engineer for Openreach Scotland.

“We plan to start work in Perth before the end of this year. It’s a major infrastructure upgrade, so local people will see more engineering teams, equipment and vans around town and we’ll let people know what to expect as work gets under way.”

More than 12,000 households and businesses in Scottish communities like Kinross, Auchterarder, Blairgowrie, Pitlochry, Scone and Bridge of Earn already have access to a full fibre network. Openreach investment is planned in other local locations including Aberfeldy, Alyth, Comrie and Cupar Angus.

Build progress and updates can be found on the Openreach website, where users can see if their address is one to benefit from the programme.