More Fife homes and businesses now connected to full fibre broadband as upgrades continue

The £600m R100 rollout has reached more than 57,000 of Scotland’s hardest to connect properties, with people in Cupar, Glenrothes, Kinglassie, Ladybank and Leuchars among those gaining access to full fibre internet connections.

Delivery partner Openreach has confirmed more properties in several towns and villages – including Aberdour, Balmullo, Ceres, Inverkeithing, Falkland and Peat Inn – are next in line for upgrades, as work continues on the ground this summer.

Full fibre broadband is more than 30 times faster than the Scottish Government’s original commitment to make superfast services available to homes and businesses with existing connections of less than 30 Megabits per second (Mbps).

People can check if the rollout has reached their address yet and register for progress updates at www.openreach.co.uk/r100. Once full fibre is available, people need to arrange for their service to be upgraded through their chosen provider.

“It’s exciting that thousands more premises are now able to access a full fibre connection, and we’ll continue to work with Openreach to deliver further connections up and down the country.”Robert Thorburn, Openreach partnership director for Scotland, said: “The R100 build is a monumental effort to upgrade and connect Scotland’s most challenging locations.

“We’re seeing really positive, steady growth in take-up across the country, and our teams are all set for a busy summer of new upgrades, working closely with Fife Council.”

He added: “We do our best to avoid disruptive operations by reusing existing poles and ducts and deploying engineering innovations instead of digging up roads. But we do want residents to be aware that sometimes civils work or new poles are needed, to include as many local homes and businesses as possible.”

Full fibre broadband provides more reliable, resilient and future-proof connections; with fewer faults; consistent speeds and enough capacity to meet ever-growing data demands across multiple devices.

Tom Arthur, Scottish Government Employment and Investment Minister, said: “Digital infrastructure is a key enabler of economic growth and an increasingly vital part of our everyday lives. It’s why the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring communities across the length and breadth of the country will benefit from full fibre broadband and making record investment of over £600 million in its rollout.

“The R100 programme is a critical part of the upgrade to full fibre technology. As one of the most ambitious and complex digital infrastructure programmes in Europe, it is delivering future-proofed digital connectivity across the country and enabling more homes and businesses – including in our island and rural communities – to access a fast and reliable connection."