More premises across Dumfries and Galloway 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 Dundrennan for the first time. Other areas to receive further deployment include Newton Stewart, Moffat, Beattock, Thornhill and Sanquhar. 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 Dumfries and Galloway, the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband team were out in Lochmaben and Dalbeattie this week.
As part of the local rollout in Dumfries and Galloway 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. Some properties in places like Cummertrees, Collin, Gatehouse, Kirkgunzeon, Kirkcudbright, Newton Stewart and Lochmaben are among those to benefit.
Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said: “Once again it is very positive news knowing that more premises than ever before now have fibre broadband available to them.
“I would encourage more people to check whether they are eligible to upgrade on the DSSB website and contact a service provider of their choice to start receiving faster broadband.
“I am not complacent – I am aware that those who do not have access are at a disadvantage and our job is not done until everyone is connected. We are now focusing on the next steps to achieve 100 per cent coverage by 2021.”
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.
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.
“Finally, we are still bringing fibre to small communities like Dundrennan for the first time.
“It’s really a privilege for all of us at Openreach to be able to play such an important part in the life of local communities. We know there’s always more to do and we are up for the challenge.”
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