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Boosting broadband in the North East
More than 60,000 homes and businesses to benefit from Project Gigabit rollout.
Around 63,000 more premises in the North East of Scotland will be able to access gigabit-capable broadband following the award of a contract to deliver the Project Gigabit rollout in the area.
The £105 million contract, funded by the UK Government and procured and delivered by the Scottish Government, has been awarded to GoFibre.
The roll-out will benefit some of the most rural areas in Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Angus, Dundee, Moray, Highland and parts of Perth and Kinross. It will reach locations including Forfar, Glamis and Brechin, to Cullen, Forres and as far west as Castle Stuart near Inverness Airport.
The first connections are due to be delivered by Summer 2026.
The contract is the third to be awarded as part of the Project Gigabit programme in Scotland. It follows a £25 million contract being awarded to GoFibre to benefit around 11,000 premises in the Scottish Borders and East Lothian and a £157 million contract awarded to Openreach to provide access to more than 65,000 premises in the Highlands and Outer Hebrides, together with some of the most hard-to-reach areas across the country.
Business Minister Richard Lochhead said:
“Fast, reliable broadband is a fundamental building block for Scotland’s economy – and for our society. It’s why we are committed to ensuring connections across the country meet the needs of people and businesses, delivering faster connections to more than a million premises over the last decade.
“Project Gigabit will build on and complement the transformational work already being delivered through the Scottish Government’s Reaching 100% programme and I look forward to working with the UK Government, as broadband remains a reserved matter, to ensure we deliver more gigabit-capable connections to rural communities.”
UK Telecoms Minister Sir Chris Bryant said:
“Our investment in North East Scotland will overhaul broadband networks in hard-to-reach areas with slower internet speeds, putting an end to annoying buffering, and creating exciting new opportunities for local businesses and communities.
“Now the contract is signed, work can begin to deliver internet upgrades that many towns and villages sorely need. It shows how the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change is delivering for people across Scotland, helping to drive economic growth and tear down the UK’s digital divide.”
GoFibre CEO Neil Conaghan said:
“This Project Gigabit contract award is a hugely exciting development for the north east of Scotland, and for GoFibre, transforming broadband connectivity across a substantial region of Scotland.
“As a fast-growing Scottish independent broadband company, GoFibre is committed to improving connectivity in rural and hard-to-reach areas and we cannot wait to get started on this major infrastructure project. Building on the back of our Project Gigabit contract award for the Borders and East Lothian earlier this year, it shows GoFibre is at the heart of rural broadband development in Scotland.”
Background
Project Gigabit was launched by the UK Government to enable hard-to-reach communities to access fast, reliable gigabit-capable broadband. It targets homes and businesses that are not included in broadband suppliers’ commercial plans, reaching parts of the UK that might otherwise miss out on upgrades to next-generation speeds.
The programme is targeted at premises which fall out with the Scottish Government’s Reaching 100% (R100) programme contracts and commercial activity.
Further Project Gigabit contracts will see gigabit-capable broadband delivered to tens of thousands more premises across Scotland.
Over £600m is being invested in the Scottish Government’s Reaching 100% (R100) programme, comprising £591m by the Scottish Government, £52m by the UK Government and £53m by BT. This is one of the most ambitious and complex digital infrastructure programmes in Europe which is rolling out connections in some of the country’s most challenging rural locations.
Originally conceived as a superfast broadband programme, R100 is now providing a gigabit-capable connection – a speed more than 30 times faster than superfast broadband – in around 99% of cases. Building to some of the hardest-to-reach parts of Scotland, a total of over 85,000 connections have enabled access to faster broadband as a result of R100.
