The UK Government has finally revealed that Scotland’s share of the £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme will be an “estimated” £450m, although market engagement work is ongoing (i.e. getting feedback from suppliers) and has yet to reach the procurement stage – this was originally supposed to happen in the autumn.

At present nearly 74% of premises in Scotland can already access a gigabit-capable (1Gbps download) broadband ISP network (here). But this is expected to increase further as the Scottish Government progresses their existing £600m Reaching 100% (R100) project, which largely involves extending Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) coverage to another 114,000 premises in areas that lack access to “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) speeds by 2027/28. R100 has already covered 42,000 premises (here).

Want to see Scotland under the SNP?