Faster Internet Speeds

Superfast broadband has reached more than 394, 000 Scottish homes and businesses.

Latest figures reveal the high take up rates have prompted BT to return up to £129 million for additional investment. More than 25, 000 properties have benefitted from superfast broadband in Fife.

The rollout is delivering superfast access, internet speeds greater than 24 Mbps, to those properties not covered by existing commercial networks and is on track to take superfast access to 95% of the UK by 2017. More than four out of five UK premises already have access to superfast speeds, and the rollout is currently reaching an additional 40,000 homes and businesses every week.
 
UK Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said: “Our rollout of superfast broadband is transforming lives up and down the UK as every day thousands more homes and businesses are gaining access to superfast speeds. It's fantastic to see that the rollout of superfast broadband in Scotland is now delivering for customers and for the taxpayer.
 
“The levels of people taking up superfast broadband in areas where we invested public money are beyond our expectations, and BT is now reimbursing the public purse to deliver further coverage across the UK. This now means that BT will be providing up to £129m cashback for some of the most hard to reach areas.”
  
Bill Murphy, BT’s Managing Director for Next Generation Access, said: “Today marks another very important stage in the rollout of an exciting technology, which is transforming the lives of communities across the Scotland and the UK as a whole.

“BT’s multi billion pound investment in superfast broadband through its involvement in partnerships and its own commercial programme has already made fibre broadband available to many hundreds of thousands of households and businesses in Scotland – and the number is continuing to grow rapidly. Our Openreach engineers are rolling out the technology at a world class pace, reaching thousands more premises every week.
 
“Successful broadband partnerships are creating a lasting legacy, which will play a key role in the future prosperity of communities for many years to come.”