Aberdeen gets broadband '˜fast enough for VR gaming'

Householders in Aberdeen will be able to tap into new, faster broadband, as cutting- edge technology is rolled out to 7,600 homes and businesses across the city.

Aberdeen is bidding to become a testing ground for 5G technology. Picture: Ian Rutherford

The launch – in the Denburn area of the city centre – is part of Openreach’s Gfast broadband technology roll out, which will ultimately be available in 59 towns and cities across the UK.

The increased bandwidth is enough to allow a user to have a 4K TV running in every room of the house simultaneously. Meanwhile, a householder could download a film seconds before leaving their home and have it ready to watch on a phone or tablet almost immediately.

It also provides enough additional capacity to ensure broadband connections to homes and businesses are able to support future data-hungry services and applications, such as Virtual Reality gaming and smart homes – where a network of online sensors can coordinate and control home appliances from thermostats, door bells and security cameras to door locks, lawn sprinklers, window blinds and washing machines.

Openreach has said that the new network is more secure and reliable than existing technology, using special software which can detect and fix issues before customers notice problems and provides a faster, more stable service.

Andrew Hepburn, Openreach’s director for infrastructure delivery in Scotland, said: “Our engineers have worked across the Denburn exchange area in Aberdeen, installing cutting- edge technology to make faster, more reliable broadband services available. We’re keen for people to check it out and experience the difference an ultra-fast connection can make.”

He added: “People are using their home broadband connections more than ever, consuming more than double the amount of data than they did three years ago.

“A mass of new apps and services which demand higher quality broadband connections are finding their way into our homes and businesses – like virtual and augmented reality and more sophisticated online gaming, education and healthcare.”

Openreach is also to roll out its ‘Fibre First’ programme aims to reach three million premises by the end of 2020 and ten millionby the mid-2020s – using ‘Fibre to the Premises’ technology – where fibre optic cables are laid from the exchange to people’s front doors.