Internet upgrades go live across Edinburgh and the Lothians

Over 4,000 households and businesses across Edinburgh and the Lothians can now get connected to the UK’s most reliable broadband through the Scottish Government’s Reaching 100% programme.

The £600m R100 rollout has reached more than 57,000 of Scotland’s hardest to connect properties, with people in places like Cockenzie, Dechmont, Fairmilehead, Gifford, Kirknewton and Loanhead among those gaining access to full fibre internet connections².

Delivery partner Openreach today confirmed more hard-to-reach properties in Auchengray, Bo’ness, Kirkliston, Mid Calder are Philpstoun are next in line for upgrades, as work continues on the ground this summer.

Full fibre broadband is more than 30 times faster than the Scottish Government’s original commitment to make superfast services available to homes and businesses with existing connections of less than 30 Megabits per second (Mbps).

People can check if the rollout has reached their address yet and register for progress updates at www.openreach.co.uk/r100. Once full fibre is available, people need to arrange for their service to be upgraded through their chosen provider. This R100 video explains the build and order process. 

Scottish Government Employment and Investment Minister Tom Arthur said: “Digital infrastructure is a key enabler of economic growth and an increasingly vital part of our everyday lives.

“It’s why the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring communities across the length and breadth of the country will benefit from full fibre broadband and making record investment of over £600 million in its rollout.

“The R100 programme is a critical part of the upgrade to full fibre technology. As one of the most ambitious and complex digital infrastructure programmes in Europe, it is delivering future-proofed digital connectivity across the country and enabling more homes and businesses – including in our island and rural communities – to access a fast and reliable connection. 

“It’s exciting that thousands more premises are now able to access a full fibre connection, and we’ll continue to work with Openreach to deliver further connections up and down the country.”

Robert Thorburn, Openreach partnership director for Scotland, said: “The R100 build is a monumental effort to upgrade and connect Scotland’s most challenging locations. There’s over a thousand people working on the build, with three million metres of new cable installed so far this year – enough to run up and down the A9 seven times.

“We’re seeing really positive, steady growth in take-up across the country, and our teams are all set to carry out further upgrades, working closely with local authorities across the Lothians.

“We do our best to avoid disruptive operations by reusing existing poles and ducts and deploying engineering innovations instead of digging up roads. But we do want residents to be aware that sometimes civils work or new poles are needed, to include as many local homes and businesses as possible.” 

Full fibre broadband provides more reliable, resilient and future-proof connections; with fewer faults; consistent speeds and enough capacity to meet ever-growing data demands across multiple devices. 

It supports everything people do online at home, including streaming movies, TV and sport as well as online gaming, with a lot less buffering and slowdown at busier times.

For businesses, a full fibre connection can help with productivity, efficiency and security and support everyday operations like video calls, staff training, online banking and interactions with customers. 

Research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) last year predicted that full fibre across Scotland could add £4.5 billion to the nation’s economy by 2030.  

The R100 programme has recently brought, or is currently bringing, full fibre broadband to selected households and properties in the four Lothian council areas as follows:  

Local Authority	Exchange Area	R100 build status
City of Edinburgh	Maybury	Recent build
City of Edinburgh	Pentland (Kirknewton)	Recent build
City of Edinburgh	Kirkliston	Recent build and work ongoing
East Lothian	Cockenzie	Recent build
East Lothian	Gifford	Recent build
Midlothian	Penicuik	Recent build
Midlothian	Dalkeith	Recent build
Midlothian	Loanhead	Recent build
Midlothian	Fairmilehead	Recent build
Midlothian	Temple	Recent build
West Lothian	Dechmont	Recent build
West Lothian	Auchengray	Recent build and work ongoing
West Lothian	Bo’ness	Recent build and work ongoing
West Lothian	Mid Calder	Recent build and work ongoing
West Lothian	Philpstoun	Recent build and work ongoing