Update On The Scottish Government's R100 Broadband Programme

17th March 2022

Why is broadband important?
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted that people need good broadband services, now more than ever. For keeping in touch with family and friends, working from home and accessing education, healthcare and other services.

Good connectivity is essential for economic growth, increasing productivity and innovation, and for sustainable public services and environment.

Scottish broadband facts
Ofcom estimates
93%of premises have access to superfast broadband

About 68% of premises that are able to get superfast broadband actually take it up

30,000About 30,000 (1.1%) premises only have download speeds of less than 10Mb/s.

What have we reported previously?
In 2018, Audit Scotland reported- Opens in a new window that the Scottish Government had met its target of providing access to fibre broadband to 95 per cent of premises in Scotland by the end of 2017. At that point, its superfast broadband programme (DSSB) had connected 890,000 premises. We stated that it would be challenging for the Scottish Government to deliver its commitment to ensure that every home and business in Scotland could access superfast broadband by the end of 2021 through its Reaching 100 per cent (R100) programme (launched in May 2016).

The programme's target will be delivered through commercial coverage, three R100 contracts and the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS).

The story since 2018
Average speeds have increased significantly since 2018 through commercial and public sector investment. The DSSB programme reached around 951,000 premises with the total public sector investment currently estimated to be £311 million.

Due to delays in finalising the R100 intervention area and awarding the North, South and Central contracts to BT plc., work will now continue until 2027 in some areas.

There was a legal challenge to the North contract. This was resolved but the challenge meant that this contract was not awarded until December 2020. The number of premises covered by that contract had to be reassessed because commercial coverage had extended in the intervening period. This was not finalised until August 2021.

Around 112,000 premises are now expected to be connected through the three R100 contracts.

The Scottish Government launched the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) in September 2020. This enabled people who would not have access to superfast broadband by the end of 2021, or where there was no planned coverage, to apply for a voucher to get connected by another supplier.

After a slow start, by 31 December 2021, around 107,000 premises remain to be connected through the contracts[1]. Many of these are in the hardest to reach locations, with the majority in the North. Connecting these remaining premises, will be challenging and expensive.

Around 9,000 more premises than originally planned will be fibre to the premise (FTTP) [North from 85% to 100%; Central 79% to 95%], because of additional funding of £12.5 million from the UK government's Project Gigabit. FTTP provides gigabit capable speeds- exceeding the Scottish Government's original commitment.

The Scottish Government is currently working with the UK government to agree the eligible premises and funding for Project Gigabit- Opens in a new window.

The average cost to connect premises has increased from around £4,000 to £5,690. This is due to the increase in the number of fibre to the premise connections, which are more expensive.

The cost to connect a premise varies significantly between and within the Lots due to the different geographies and spread of premises and technologies used. For example, the Scottish Government estimates that some island premises could cost around £20,000 to connect.

What about the premises outwith the three R100 contracts and planned commercial coverage?
Around 85,000 premises will be covered by the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS), which launched in September 2020.
There are two types:
Main scheme - worth up to £5,000 for premises where no R100 contract or commercial roll-out is planned. It is designed to allow vouchers in a community to be combined to extend available funding.
Interim scheme - worth up to £400 to help deliver an interim connection to those premises where roll out is planned after the end of 2021. Premises in more remote areas can claim a further £250.

The schemes are demand-led meaning that the residents/owners need to contact a registered supplier to get connected. People with premises eligible for the main scheme can also apply for the UK Government's Gigabit Voucher Scheme where eligible.
By December 2021, 1,426 voucher connections (826 main scheme, and 600 interim scheme) had been installed, at a total value of £2.1 million. To allow more time for people to apply and secure a connection, the Scottish Government announced in November 2021 that it was extending the availability of the interim scheme until 31 March 2022.

The original estimated cost of the scheme was between £22 million to £28.6 million based on a take up of 20 to 30 per cent for the main scheme and 3 to 4 per cent for the interim scheme.

Are people getting better speeds compared to 2018?
Average speeds have increased significantly since we last reported in 2018. The Orkney Islands Council area is the only area where the average speed remains below 30Mb/s (18.7Mb/s). However, there may be premises throughout Scotland that cannot receive these speeds.

Premises in the North Lot receive lower average speeds than elsewhere in the country. This is because of the geography and distance between premises. For the Central and South Lots the lowest average speeds are 47.3 Mb/s and 40.2 Mb/s respectively.
Since we last reported, the number of premises unable to receive speeds of at least 10Mb/s has reduced from around 134,000 (5 per cent) to 100,000 (4 per cent). The majority of these are in rural areas (87,000).

This overall number is significantly reduced from 100,000 to 30,000 when you include the premises that can access fixed wireless connections.

There has been a large increase the number of premises able to receive faster speeds, particularly during 2021. Fibre to the premise is now available to 741,000 premises (26 per cent) of premises (2018: 63,000, 2 per cent), with giga-bit capable connections being available to 1.4 million (50 per cent).

Fibre to the premise enables better access to cloud-based computing services, increasing reliability and productivity.

Read more HERE