Communities can upgrade to improved broadband

Households across Aberdeenshire will now be able to upgrade to faster fibre broadband through the £442 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) rollout.

Aberdeenshire East MSP Gillian Martin has welcomed the news which means a number of areas within the constituency will be connected to a full fibre network.

This includes ultrafast broadband becoming available in parts of Turriff and New Deer.

They are among more than 86,000 homes and businesses across Aberdeenshire which are now able to connect to the Digital Scotland network as engineers from Openreach continue work on the ground during 2019/20.

Ms Martin said: “We know that investment in fibre broadband helps to boost the Scottish economy.

“Every pound spent delivers almost £12 of benefits and research by DSSB has shown the total benefit from investment as £2.76 billion over 15 years.

“Engineers are working hard to boost coverage across Aberdeenshire which will be life changing for residents and businesses.

“I am delighted that faster fibre broadband connections have been extended to a number of areas across my constituency.”

Thanks to additional investment as a result of innovation and new funding generated by stronger than expected take-up, the rollout will continue in every local authority area during 2019 and into 2020, complementing ongoing commercial build across Scotland.

More than 50 per cent of properties reached by the programme have switched to fibre broadband.

Local people can check if the new fibre services are available to them at www.scotlandsuperfast.com/yourstreet

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