Kelty reaching for the stars with broadband
Village ranks fourth-best across Scotland for ultrafast coverage - ahead of Dunfermline
KELTY is ranked as having the fourth best ultrafast broadband coverage in Scotland - with the city of Dunfermline trailing behind the village.
Openreach has revealed the top 20 locations with the best full-fibre broadband coverage on the company’s national digital network.
While cities are often perceived to have the best coverage, small towns and villages dominate the list of locations with the highest percentage of Openreach fibre.
Fife’s Lundin Links has the highest coverage in the whole of Scotland, with more than nine out of every 10 properties able to upgrade.
Tranent and Fauldhouse complete the top three, with Kelty next in line with its impressive coverage.
Anstruther, in sixth, completes Fife’s representation in the top 20 as Dunfermline falls just short but still boasts “extensive coverage,” Openreach said.
The Press told you in June this year that Openreach had spent more than £5.4 million locally so far to build a new ultrafast, full fibrenetwork in Dunfermline.
At the time, it said the network covered more than 18,000 homes and businesses - more than 60 per cent of premises in the city.
However, thousands of residents had yet to upgrade, with less than 27 per cent of households adopting the service where it is available, lagging behind the UK average of 30 per cent.
The new technology is up to 162 times faster than the average UK broadband connection and around five times more reliable than the old copper-based network it is replacing.
More than 75,000 homes and businesses throughout the Kingdom can now upgrade to full fibre.
The fibre rollout is expected to reach more properties in Fife, including Inverkeithing, in the next few months.
Openreach has invested more than £22 million in Fife’s new network so far, and is working with the Scottish and UK Governments, through the Reaching 100% (R100) programme and voucher schemes, to upgrade some of its hardest-to-reach places.
Local people can visit openreach.co.uk/ultrafastfullfibre to register for updates and check their postcode to see if and when services are available from their chosen provider.
Robert Thorburn, Openreach Partnership Director for Scotland, stated: “Our engineers and build partners have done an amazing job helping us bring full fibre to one million homes and businesses across Scotland.
Local people are using more and more data every year, streaming their favourite shows, downloading the latest video games and shopping and trading online.
“Bringing fibre broadband to places like Lundin Links and Dunfermline allows locals to enjoy all the benefits of ultrafast speeds now – and will meet their data demands decades into the future.”
“The new network is not just faster, but also more reliable,” he went on to comment.
“We’ve more to do, and we’re working closely with Fife Council to overcome challenges and reach as many homes and businesses as possible.”
The Scottish Government’s Innovation Minister
Richard Lochhead stated: “This is an important milestone in the drive to ensure more homes and businesses across Scotland benefit from full fibre broadband, improving vital connectivity.
“We are working with Openreach to roll-out future-proofed digital infrastructure to our rural towns and villages and this Reaching 100% build, alongside Openreach’s commercial network, will underpin economic growth and enhance communities across Scotland for decades to come.”
UK Government Minister for Data and Digital Infrastructure Sir John Whittingdale commented: “Thanks to UK government investment, thousands of rural homes, businesses and public buildings across Scotland now have access to first class broadband fit for the future.”
He continued: “Over three quarters of premises across the UK can now access these faster speeds and with more collaboration with network builders like Openreach at a local and national level, we will see even more rural towns and villages staking their claim to this next-generation connectivity.”
The Openreach network offers the widest choice of providers, such as BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen, which means people have lots of choice and can shop for the best deals. You can find out more about the benefits of an upgrade to Full Fibre broadband on the Openreach website.