Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband reaches more of Perth and Kinross

More premises across Perth and Kinross can now upgrade to faster fibre broadband through the £428 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband rollout.

Thanks to the programme, more than 890,000 premises are able to connect to the new network, which has now arrived in places like Kinrossie, Meigle and Inchmichael. Each week the programme, one of the largest broadband infrastructure projects in Europe, reaches more remote and rural areas.

Across the country nearly 4,500 new fibre street cabinets are now live and more than 11,000km of cable has been laid by engineers from Openreach, Scotland’s digital network business. Fibre broadband offers fast and reliable broadband connections at speeds of up to 80Mbps¹ and there are many suppliers in the marketplace to choose from.

Local people need to sign up for the new, faster services with an internet service provider, as upgrades are not automatic. To help promote the fact that fibre is widely available in Perth and Kinross the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband team were out in Perth and Blairgowrie this week.

Delivered through two projects – led by Highlands and Islands Enterprise in its area and the Scottish Government in the rest of Scotland – funding partners also include the UK Government through Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), BT Group, local authorities and the EU via the European Regional Development Fund.

Thanks to additional investment as a result of innovation and new funding generated by stronger than expected take-up, the programme will deliver new DSSB deployment in every local authority area during 2018 and into 2019, complementing ongoing commercial build across Scotland.

As part of the local rollout in Perthshire some ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology is being deployed. FTTP sees fibre connected directly from the exchange to the premise and is capable of carrying speeds of up to 1Gbps². FTTP is being deployed by the programme in only a handful of areas where it is the best technical solution for the area.

Councillor Angus Forbes, Convener of Perth & Kinross Council’s Environment and Infrastructure Committee said: “I am delighted that more areas across Perth and Kinross can now access fibre broadband thanks to the programme and more people are now able to get a superfast speed. Whether you are downloading a box set, a small business making transactions or just keeping in touch with friends, fibre broadband can make it all happen easily."

Sara Budge, Programme Director for Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband, says: “It’s fantastic news that the programme has been able to benefit local residents and businesses in and around Perth and Kinross.”

Robert Thorburn, Fibre Broadband Director for Openreach in Scotland, said: “As the rollout nears its end stages, we’re really digging in to some harder-to-reach communities and places where the engineering challenges are more significant.

“Many of these latest lines have been converted from a format once thought incompatible with high-speed fibre broadband, and we’re increasingly using ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) to deliver the network directly into individual dwellings, with some properties in places like Glenalmond and Scotlandwell among those to benefit.

“Finally, we are still bringing fibre to some small communities for the first time, such as Grange and Kinrossie.

“It’s really a privilege for all of us at Openreach to be able to play such an important part in the life of communities the length and breadth of Scotland. We know there’s always more to do and we are up for the challenge.”ENDS

^{1 and 2} These are the top wholesale speeds available over the Openreach networks to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.

² FTTP is capable of delivering the fastest residential broadband speeds in the UK – up to 1Gbps. That’s around 24 times the UK average speed of 44Mbps (according to Ofcom) and enough to stream 200 HD Netflix movies simultaneously, based on Netflix internet connection speed requirements.

Notes to editors:

Due to the current network topography and the economics of deployment, it is likely that not all premises within selected areas will be able to access fibre-based broadband at the same point in the roll-out.

The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme aims to provide fibre broadband infrastructure to parts of Scotland not included in commercial providers’ investment plans, and has reached around 95 per cent of premises when combined with current commercial roll-out plans.