New homes in Scotland to enjoy ‘ultrafast’ broadband speeds

More than 11,850 new homes across Scotland will have access to some of the fastest broadband speeds in the UK after a deal was agreed by Openreach and site developers.

Openreach said it will build fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology capable of “ultrafast” speeds up to 1Gbps for 29 housing developments in locations including Aberdeen, Perth, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dunfermline, Paisley and East Kilbride.

The deal is part of a scheme supported by the Home Builders Federation and Homes for Scotland, to connect all UK new housing developments of 30 properties or more with ultrafast fibre infrastructure.

Nicola Barclay, chief executive of Homes for Scotland, said: “High speed broadband is an absolute ‘must have’ for today’s new home buyers who continue to demand faster and better broadband connections as consumers are doing more and more online and at the same time, from streaming high definition movies and TV, gaming, online shopping to using mobile devices over wireless broadband.

“Openreach’s provision of free Fibre to the Premises for developments with over 30 homes is therefore very welcome.”

Andrew Hepburn, Openreach fibre roll-out director for Scotland, said: “An ultrafast broadband network will be a major boost for these new communities by ensuring that people living and working there have quick access to some of the fastest speeds available.

“The 11,850 homes are in addition to the 9,000 homes Openreach announced in July at a dozen more new sites all over Scotland.

“It reflects our commitment to ensuring that Scotland has a first-class network, capable of delivering the latest communication services for households, businesses and other organisations.

“We know that people are passionate about the speed and reliability of the broadband service their communication provider can offer them and that, for some, the availability of ultrafast speeds will strongly influence their decision on which new property to buy.”