Full fibre gigabit broadband is, as of December 2020, available to around 34 per cent of homes and business in the UK. But there is an urban-rural digital divide. In Kinross-shire full fibre is available to just 3.9 per cent of homes and business.
The good news, for Kinross-shire homes and business with broadband speeds slower than 30 Mbps, is that the Scottish Government’s R100 programme will deliver a solution, the vast majority of which will be Openreach full fibre gigabit broadband. You can check your status here: https://www.scotlandsuperfast.com
For those with speeds greater than 30 Mbps, the UK Government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme is available to upgrade from part-fibre copper broadband to full fibre.
Gigabit Kinross-shire has an ambition to realise 100 per cent full fibre availability.
We are getting started with an initial Millbridge “demand led” Community Fibre Partnership in Kinross for 113 homes and businesses, covering the Boat House, Millbridge, Sandport Gait, Swansacre, School Wynd, Brewery Lane and Bowton Road areas and some High Street premises.
If you are interested but don’t live in these specific areas, then please register interest with Gigabit Kinross-shire so that additional demand led schemes can be created and started to cover more areas.
Demand led Community Fibre Partnerships don’t require any community group or entity to sign a contract with Openreach. Individual homes and businesses pledge a voucher on a portal set up for the community by Openreach, and when the pledge target is met, the upgrade work commences.
19th February 2021: UPDATE ON FULL FIBRE UPGRADES (Sandport, Swansacre, Bowton Road and Millbridge).
The Openreach voucher pledge site for Kinross has been open for three months since November 2020. Only 25% of homes and businesses in Sandport Gait, Swansacre, School Wynd, Brewery Lane, Bowton Road and Millbridge have pledged vouchers.
For all 113 upgrades to proceed, we require at least another eight voucher pledges. Vouchers can be pledged at:
https://openreach.secure.force.com/VoucherSite/
On 21st January 2021 we thought that 100% of our voucher pledge target had been met. However, Openreach informed us that some of the vouchers pledges were by properties not included in the 113 properties selected by Openreach for this first upgrade project. So after verifying all the voucher pledges, the target went back down to 79%. As of 19th February 2021, we are 84% towards the target.
The Millbridge demand-led Openreach Community Fibre Partnership is supported by Perth & Kinross Council and funded through the UK Government’s Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) “Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme”:
