Openreach brings national broadband upgrade to the Highlands
Full fibre broadband is heading to more Highland and Island locations, as part of a huge broadband upgrade by Openreach.
Thousands of people living in Evanton, Fortrose and Grantown on Spey are next in line for full fibre. The island town of Tobermory on Mull, Argyll and Bute, is also included in the plans.
Openreach joins 1.2 million homes and businesses across Scotland who already have access to the UK’s most reliable broadband technology.
Across Scotland, the company has published updated plans to build full fibre broadband to 28 more locations – covering a further 120,000 homes and businesses.
Openreach partnership director for Scotland, Robert Thorburn said: “Our rollout of full fibre broadband is a huge infrastructure success story. As far as we know, no company is building faster or further in Europe. Our engineers are working at a rapid pace, despite the huge complexities of an engineering project on this scale, and we won’t be stopping any time soon.
“Our fibre network now passes more than 25,000 Highland properties and today we’re pledging further investment for more local communities. Half of those households and businesses have upgraded so far. While demand is strong, there’s plenty of room for more people to switch to better broadband right now.”
Robert added: “Our fibre checker has the latest information about our work in your area. It’s also worth noting that upgrades aren’t automatic. Once full fibre is available where you live, you’ll need to place an order 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.”
Scottish Government employment and investment minister, Tom Arthur said: “Digital infrastructure is a key enabler to support economic growth right across Scotland. It’s why the Scottish Government is making record investment in broadband infrastructure this year, and we will continue to work alongside Openreach and other partners to continue improving and extending our digital network to benefit communities and businesses across the country.
“As a signatory of Scotland’s Full Fibre Charter, Openreach is committed to accelerating and prioritising rollout of the technology. This welcome programme of work will bring continued significant investment in our workforce and national infrastructure, enabling more homes and businesses – including in our island and rural communities - to access a full fibre connection.”
The latest plans are part of Openreach’s £15 billion project to upgrade the UK’s broadband infrastructure – making gigabit-capable technology available to 25 million homes and businesses by the end of 2026, including 6.2 million in harder to reach, more remote and rural areas.
Openreach has also refreshed its online map and postcode checker to give the public a clearer, regularly updated view of its plans and progress between now and 2026.
The map now shows the levels of current and future expected full fibre coverage as of today, taking data from all of its build programmes, whilst the postcode checker continues to offer the most personalised view of the connectivity available to an individual home or business.
Further updates will be provided as any additional locations are added in future.
