Tag: Openreach

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 AuthorityExchange AreaR100 build status
City of EdinburghMayburyRecent build
City of EdinburghPentland (Kirknewton)Recent build
City of EdinburghKirklistonRecent build and work ongoing 
East LothianCockenzieRecent build
East LothianGiffordRecent build
MidlothianPenicuikRecent build
MidlothianDalkeithRecent build
MidlothianLoanheadRecent build
MidlothianFairmileheadRecent build
MidlothianTempleRecent build
West LothianDechmontRecent build
West LothianAuchengrayRecent build and work ongoing 
West LothianBo’nessRecent build and work ongoing 
West LothianMid CalderRecent build and work ongoing 
West LothianPhilpstounRecent build and work ongoing 

R100: Scotland’s full fibre broadband network extended

More rural homes and businesses will access faster broadband following a further £36 million expansion of the Reaching 100% (R100) contracts. 

The extension of existing contracts with delivery partner Openreach will see another 2,637 rural properties across Scotland able to access gigabit-capable connections through additional Scottish and UK Government investment in the R100 programme.

It will provide speeds more than 30 times faster than the Scottish Government’s original commitment and fulfil a 2021/22 Programme for Government commitment to deliver gigabit capable connections to the islands.

Contracts for both the North Lot – covering the north of Scotland and most of Scotland’s inhabited islands – and South Lot – covering Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders and stretching from East Lothian and East Ayrshire – are being extended with this new R100 investment. 

The UK Government’s Project Gigabit will fund £16 million of this additional investment, which will be split between the R100 North and South contracts. The Scottish Government will invest a further £20 million in the North contract to help fund the gap between the cost of delivery and the contribution from Project Gigabit.

Business Minister Ivan McKee said: “This latest investment will connect more homes and businesses in Scotland’s rural and island communities to gigabit capable broadband. That will have far reaching economic, social and development impacts.

“Our R100 programme is going further, and providing faster broadband, than originally envisaged. This takes time and significant investment, but we are fully committed to ensuring that as many people as possible are able to enjoy the important advantages of this future-proofed digital infrastructure.”

Digital Infrastructure Minister for the UK Government Matt Warman said: “Bringing lightning-fast and reliable broadband to hard-to-reach areas is at the heart of the UK Government’s mission to level up communities, and that’s exactly what we’re doing in Scotland with our additional £16 million investment in R100.

“We’ve already delivered faster broadband to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across Scotland and there is even more investment on the way thanks to Project Gigabit, our record £5 billion programme to bring growth and prosperity to rural areas by putting them in the digital fast lane.”

Openreach Scotland Partnership Director Robert Thorburn said: “The R100 build is once in a generation, bringing the fastest, most reliable technology to our most remote residents. Full fibre is future-proof – so the new network will always meet the nation’s needs. 

“Connecting these properties one by one is one of the biggest broadband challenges in Europe. To make the most efficient use of resources, we’ll align the R100 build with our own rural investment. This will help us to get engineers and equipment to the most remote places, where they’re needed. 

“We’ll continue to explore every option to reach more rural homes, faster.” 

Foysol Choudhury MSP gets up to speed with broadband

Holyrood drop-in session highlights the national digital network’s plans for Scotland’s ultrafast future and commitment to apprenticeship programme

Lothian MSP Foysol Choudhury met engineers and apprentices from Openreach to discuss the roll out of full fibre broadband and the economic benefits fast, reliable connectivity is bringing to Scotland’s economy during a drop-in session at the Scottish Parliament.

The Lothian MSP was updated on work being done to upgrade the country’s broadband network – including across the Lothians, where 190,000 properties now have access to the new, ultrafast technology. He also met apprentices Hayley Goldthorpe and Jack Cotton to hear first-hand about their experiences.      

Openreach recently announced it will create and fill around 500 more Scottish jobs during 2022 – including around 390 apprenticeships – as it continues to invest billions of pounds into its UK broadband network, people and training.

Foysol Choudhury MSP said: “Reliable connectivity is a hugely important feature of life in modern Scotland and a necessity for people living and working across Lothian. Openreach engineers and apprentices are working tirelessly to roll out full fibre broadband to more local homes and businesses each week.

“The event in parliament was a great opportunity to quiz management about the priorities ahead and the challenges in more complex areas of build – and discuss how policy changes could help. It was great to learn more about opportunities that can be unlocked, especially for remote and rural communities, by ultra-reliable full fibre broadband.”

According to thinkbroadband, the UK’s largest independent broadband news and information site, nearly 95 per cent of Scots can currently access superfast broadband at 30Mbps+.     

At the beginning of the year Openreach announced that more than half a million Scottish homes and businesses can connect to its new gigabit-capable, full fibre network.

Around 40 locations across Lothian – from Edinburgh to Gullane, Loanhead and Dechmont – are included in its plans to reach 25m premises with the technology by the end of 2026.

The drop-in session was hosted by Fraser Rowberry, Openreach’s Chief Engineer for Scotland, who thanked Emma Harper MSP for sponsoring the event.

Fraser Rowberry said: “We know that reliable, ultrafast internet connections can have a transformative effect on businesses, online learning and people’s daily lives. That’s why we at Openreach are committed to rolling them out to homes and business premises across Scotland.

“Research from Cebr last year evidenced the hugely positive economic impact universal connections could have in Scotland. A comprehensive full fibre network could enable 76,000 people to re-enter the workforce and contribute billions of pounds to the Scottish economy.

 “We were delighted to be able to take that positive story to MSPs and set out our vision and plans for bringing ultrafast broadband to more of Scotland.”

£95m ultrafast broadband boost for Scotland

Openreach to bring full fibre broadband to more Lothian communities

Another 28,700 Lothian homes and businesses are set for a major broadband boost as part of a £95m[1] Scottish investment by Openreach – the nation’s largest digital network provider, used by customers of service providers like BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone.

Musselburgh, Pencaitland and Aberlady in East Lothian; Ford in Midlothian; and Linlithgow, Armadale and Philipstoun in West Lothian will be upgraded in a £10m investment1 following the company’s latest build announcement, with a new, ultrafast, ultra-reliable ‘full fibre’ broadband network to be built to most premises in these areas.

The digital network provider has now reached more than six million homes and businesses across the UK with ultrafast full fibre, around 480,000 of them in Scotland.

The latest plans follow news earlier this year that around 300,000 Scottish homes and businesses would get access to Openreach’s new network, mostly in rural and harder to serve areas.

The company has already announced plans to upgrade more than 28 towns and villages across the Lothians – including Gullane, Haddington, Penicuik and Broxburn – as well as the city of Edinburgh, and more than 175,000 premises can now connect.

Robert Thorburn, partnership director for Openreach in Scotland, said: “As Scotland’s biggest fibre builder, we’re delighted to be unveiling another bumper broadband boost for local people.

“Good connectivity is vital – whether it’s to work from home, access education and care services, or for gaming and streaming entertainment – and that’s why we’re investing across the UK to upgrade our network to 25 million premises.

“Nobody’s building faster, further or to a higher standard than Openreach, and we’ve already reached six million homes and businesses with ultrafast full fibre technology, including 480,000 in Scotland. It’s proving popular as well, with nearly 23 per cent already choosing to start using it.

“Our engineers and build partners are reaching more communities every week and we’re not just building in cities and urban areas. Many rural and hard to reach communities are already benefitting and we plan to reach many more in the coming months and years.”  

Scottish Government Economy Secretary Kate Forbes said: “Digital connectivity is more vital than ever and critical to Scotland’s plans for a strong, green and fair economic recovery.

“Our Reaching 100% (R100) programme – including our investment of £600 million in the R100 contracts – ensures that everyone in Scotland can access superfast broadband. With Openreach’s latest commercial investment of £95 million, this will ensure more than 50 of our communities across Scotland will be able to access even faster full fibre broadband.”

Across the UK, more than 1.3 million homes and businesses have already ordered a full fibre service from a range of retail service providers using the Openreach network. But this means millions more are yet to start benefiting from some of the fastest, most reliable broadband connections in the world and have yet to upgrade.

Recent research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) highlighted the clear economic benefits of connecting everyone in Scotland to full fibre. It estimated this would create a £4.5 billion boost to the local economy.

Openreach engineers have been working hard to make the technology available to as many people as possible throughout the UK – at times reaching 47,000 premises a week – and work will continue between now and 2026, with the full list of locations and timescales being updated regularly on the Openreach website. 

The company plans to reach a total of 25 million premises by the end of December 2026, including more than six million in the hardest-to-serve parts of the country defined by industry regulator Ofcom.

Openreach employs more than 3,200 people across Scotland. 

Find out more about our Fibre First programme, latest availability and local plans here.