Bridge brings faster broadband to South Queensferry
More than four in every five properties in South Queensferry can now order some of the fastest, most reliable broadband in Europe.
Eighty five per cent of homes and businesses in the town and the surrounding area can access Openreach's ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre network.
Delivering full fibre access to South Queensferry has been a unique challenge – with a 3km stretch of glass fibre blown across the iconic Forth Road Bridge to connect residents and businesses in the town to the network hub in Inverkeithing, Fife.
The project took six months to plan and weeks of preparation, as engineers worked in steel tunnels under the walking platforms to prepare the bridge for the fibre cables.
The new technology is up to ten times faster than the average UK broadband connection and around five times more reliable than the old copper-based network it’s replacing.
Residents and business owners have been quick to take advantage of access to the network, with 45 per cent of properties signing up to full fibre services – 50 per cent higher than the Scottish average – and take-up still growing.
Work will continue on the ground later this year, when engineers start building links to the hardest-to-reach local properties as part of Openreach’s Reaching 100% contract with the Scottish Government.
However, local people are being reminded that hundreds more residents and businesses could upgrade and reap the benefits right now.
Robert Thorburn, Openreach’s partnership director for Scotland, said: “Linking South Queensferry to our full fibre network was a once-in-a-generation engineering task. Local residents and businesses have been quick to sign up for faster and more reliable full fibre broadband services, but more people could be benefiting right now.
“Gigabit-capable broadband can have a huge impact on people’s lives and it’s great for the economy, but upgrades aren’t automatic. People need to place an order with their chosen providers to get connected and we’ll do the rest.
“Our network offers the widest choice of providers – such as BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen – which means people have lots of choice and can get a great deal. Even if you already have a decent enough service, it’s worth checking if you can upgrade, because full fibre is the future. It provides the best broadband experience at great value for money.”
To find out if your property has access to full fibre broadband, visit the Openreach website or check with your service provider to see if you can upgrade.
