Comrie set for broadband upgrade boost
Village is part of £95m investment
Hundreds of homes and businesses in Comrie are set for a major broadband boost as part of a £95m investment by Openreach.
The Strath village is among more than 50 Scottish locations to be upgraded following the company’s latest build announcement, with a new, ultrafast, ultra-reliable ‘full fibre’ broadband network to be built to serve most premises.
The digital network provider is used by customers of service providers like BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone.
Openreach has now reached more than six million homes and businesses across the UK with ultrafast full fibre, around 480,000 of them in Scotland.
The latest plans follow news earlier this year that around 300,000 Scottish homes and businesses would get access to Openreach’s new network, mostly in rural and harder to serve areas.
The company has previously announced plans to upgrade 11 other towns in Perth and Kinross, including Blairgowrie, Pitlochry and Crieff.
Robert Thorburn, partnership director for Openreach in Scotland, said: “As Scotland’s biggest fibre builder, we’re delighted to be unveiling a broadband boost for people and businesses in Comrie.
“Good connectivity is vital – whether it’s to work from home, access education and care services, or for gaming and streaming entertainment – and that’s why we’re investing across the UK to upgrade our network to 25 million premises.
“Nobody’s building faster, further or to a higher standard than Openreach, and we’ve already reached six million homes and businesses with ultrafast full fibre technology, including 480,000 in Scotland.
“It’s proving popular as well, with nearly 23 per cent already choosing to start using it.
“Our engineers and build partners are reaching more communities every week and we’re not just building in cities and urban areas.
“Many rural and hard to reach communities are already benefitting and we plan to reach many more in the coming months and years.”
Scottish Government economy secretary Kate Forbes said: “Digital connectivity is more vital than ever and critical to Scotland’s plans for a strong, green and fair economic recovery.
“Our Reaching 100 per cent (R100) programme – including our investment of £600 million in the R100 contracts – ensures that everyone in Scotland can access superfast broadband.”