Blog part 1 | Beyond the milestone: what 27,000 connections mean for Scotland’s digital future

It’s been a while since I last blogged, but there’s been much happening here in my role as Broadband Programme Director at the Scottish Government. So much in fact, that there’s two parts to this month’s blog! Here’s part one, stay tuned for the sequel later in July.

I find setting targets really helpful when managing my life and work. They act as a stepping stone towards a final goal, making the goal itself seem more achievable. Targets can help show key stakeholders progress and your direction of travel; they can also energise performance as people can more easily see the size and scale of the task at hand, and expend effort accordingly.

That’s why in the 2024/25 Programme for Government the Scottish Government set the target of delivering gigabit-capable connections to over 20,000 homes and businesses by March 2025.

This was a figure that far exceeded previous annual levels of broadband delivery; all set against the backdrop of some of the most challenging terrain in Europe. It would also take us past the halfway point of R100 contract build, which is definitely worth celebrating.

With the commitment and drive from the team and our R100 delivery partner, Openreach, I’m delighted that we not only hit 20,000 connections, but pushed on through to deliver around 27,000 over the course of the financial year. Perhaps most pleasing was our ability to reach islands such as Tiree and Iona rather than concentrate build solely on the mainland.

What’s the next target?

Last month, Ofcom hosted a roundtable discussion for the Scottish connectivity community. Central and local government, academia, public bodies and industry were all there to consider what the challenges and potential solutions might be to help overcome the last of the areas beyond the reach of contracts currently delivering gigabit-capable coverage.

The range of people in the room ensured that all the key topics were discussed; from access to infrastructure and spectrum, to consumer’s hesitancy of using lesser-known technologies, such as fixed wireless access.

‘Where do we focus our attention for the future?’ was a conversation that I was really interested in. If we’re on course for 99% gigabit coverage across the UK by 2032, then where to next? For me, to help answer this question we need to know where we currently are and where we plan to be before we can look at what comes next.

The UK and Scottish governments continually engage with industry through Open Market Reviews to identify where commercial suppliers have delivered and what their future plans are. As you can imagine this is ever changing, and a key job for us is to ensure that we understand where public sector intervention and finances are really needed, thus minimising any overlap with commercial build.

Ofcom undertake a similar exercise for fixed and mobile coverage, which drives much of the content on their web checker. Their recent Telecoms Access Review  proposes adding even more granularity to help highlight what’s still needed. In addition to all of this, many local authorities supplement the Ofcom data by carrying out their own coverage assessments to get more useful granularity through companies like Streetwave and Inakalum.

Our online address checker currently covers the R100 programme and later this year we’ll add more layers to provide even more detail for the people of Scotland.

This will include properties in scope for the Project Gigabit Type C call-off contract, which is being delivered by Openreach in Scotland, and the Project Gigabit contract for the Scottish Borders and East Lothian, which GoFibre are delivering.

I expect an announcement to soon be made confirming the successful bidder for the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee and Moray Coast Project Gigabit contact, and that data will in turn be added to our online checker.

So, we’re moving closer to having the core building blocks in place to better understand what will be served through current interventions, but questions remain around what’s left and where there’s still the need to do more.

Keep your eyes on my socials for part 2 to find out more about how we can help answer that question!

Sarah Eynon

Broadband Programme Director