Faster broadband for more Scottish Borders homes
More households and businesses in the Scottish Borders can now upgrade to faster fibre broadband through the £463 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) rollout.
Across Scottish Borders more than 38,200 homes and business can now connect to fibre broadband thanks to the DSSB programme, which is drawing to a close.
It’s the first time the roll-out has reached the village of Teviotdale, where the first residents can now connect to a gigabit-capable full fibre network build by engineers from Openreach.
Also known as Fibre-to-the-Premises or FTTP, the ultra-reliable technology provides ultrafast1 broadband directly to local homes. Full fibre has also been deployed to some homes in the village of Paxton, while more people in Oxton can now order superfast broadband1.
Across Scotland more than 950,000 premises have now been passed by the programme – with 5,078 new fibre street cabinets now live, offering broadband services at speeds up to 80Mbps1. More than 16,730km of cable has been laid – including 400km of sub-sea cable.
More than 67 per cent of properties reached by the programme have now switched to faster fibre broadband.
Fibre technology offers fast and reliable connections at a range of speeds1 and there are many suppliers in the marketplace to choose from. Local people can check if the new fibre services are available to them at www.scotlandsuperfast.com/yourstreet.
Sara Budge, DSSB Programme Director, said: "More and more people have now signed up, or are able to sign up, to fibre broadband thanks to the £463 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme, and it is particularly pleasing to see this in rural areas and villages like Oxton.
"Due to COVID-19 the way we work and live our lives has changed dramatically. The difference that having fibre broadband can make if you are working from home is remarkable. I’d urge everyone to take advantage of the faster speeds now available.
“There's lots of competition out there and people may find they could be surfing at much higher speeds at a similar cost to their current service, but the key is for customers to contact one or more service providers to explore the options available to them, as upgrades to customers’ broadband packages are not automatic.”
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 Building Digital UK (BDUK), BT Group, local authorities and the EU via the European Regional Development Fund, with Openreach leading the build on the ground.
Robert Thorburn, Partnership Director for Openreach in Scotland, said: “In a turbulent year where so much has seemed uncertain, people in places like Teviotdale and Paxton will greatly welcome their new, fast, reliable connections.
“Many of the latest households to benefit are taking a big leap forward with full fibre technology, which is designed to last for decades to come. We’ve made great progress as a digital nation – and that will continue as our engineers gear up for the next stage of the journey.”
Ends
[1] Wholesale services are available over the Openreach network to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary. FTTC (fibre-to-the-cabinet) is available at speeds of up to 80Mbps (often referred to as superfast). FTTP (fibre-to-the-premises) is capable of delivering the fastest residential broadband speeds in the UK – up to 1Gbps – fast enough to download a two-hour HD movie in 25 seconds or a 45-minute HD TV programme in just five seconds.
