Communities’ high-speed boost

Additional Angus communities are now able to connect to high-speed fibre as part of the ongoing £428 million Digital Scotland superfast broadband roll-out.

Hundreds of premises in the village of Muirhead can receive fibre broadband for the first time, while more homes and businesses have access in Brechin and Hillside.

People are being reminded they have to sign up for the new, faster services with an internet service provider, as upgrades are not automatic.

Almost all the latest connections to be upgraded in Angus were previously Exchange Only lines, a historic legacy of the copper network once thought to be out of the reach of high-speed fibre services.

Such lines run directly from the exchange to homes and business premises, bypassing the usual road-side cabinets which are a vital part of the fibre roll-out, but engineers worked out an innovative way to integrate them into the fibre network, laying hundreds of metres of new cables to reroute lines through extra cabinets.

Fergus Ewing, Cabinet secretary for the Rural Economy and Connectivity, said: “More than 90% of Scotland now has fibre broadband available thanks to both the programme and commercial coverage.

“The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme is progressing further and we are reaching more small communities like Muirhead.”