Question reference: S5W-34020
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 11 December 2020
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Current status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 14 December 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress on the North lot of the R100 programme.
Answer
I am pleased to advise Parliament that the North lot contract of the Reaching 100% (R100) programme was signed on 11 December, successfully concluding the procurement process and meeting our commitment to do so before the end of this calendar year.
Through this contract, the Scottish Government is investing £384 million as part of our commitment to give every home and business across Scotland access to superfast broadband. BT plc has been contracted to deliver all of the R100 contracts. The North lot contract will ensure that some of Scotland’s most remote rural and island communities will now benefit from superfast broadband.
Over 80% of the North lot contract build will be delivered utilising fibre-to-the-premises or FTTP technology, capable of providing gigabit speeds – over 30 times faster than our superfast commitment. It will involve the laying of 16 new subsea cables, ensuring there are subsea connections in all of our island local authorities providing resilient, future proofed, gigabit-capable connectivity.
As was the case with the Central and South lot contracts, following contract signature, we will issue BT with an updated intervention area taking into account changes in commercial roll-out plans. Openreach will, however, commence survey work in the North lot area early in the New Year while the remodelling work is finalised. Our online checker will be updated to reflect these roll-out plans in due course.