New fibre-to-the-premises broadband technology announced for Aberdeen, Ayr and Stanecastle

Aberdeen, Ayr and Stanecastle have been named among 29 towns, cities and boroughs across the UK where Openreach will build fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband technology over the next year and a half.

Outlining its plans for reaching four million homes and business by the end of March 2021, the digital infrastructure company published details of the specific exchanges where FTTP is currently being built, has already been built, or where building will start within the next three months.

Overall 103 locations across the UK have now been included in Openreach’s ‘Fibre First’ programme, with the company making full fibre technology available to more than 22,000 homes and businesses every week – keeping it on track to deliver its target of reaching four million premises by the end of March 2021.

Clive Selley, chief executive of Openreach, said: "Full fibre broadband provides a reliable, future-proof, consistent and dependable service that will be a platform for economic growth and prosperity throughout the UK for decades to come.

"We’re now building at a massive scale. Every 28 seconds we pass a home or business with our new future-proofed full fibre network. This has given us ever greater confidence in the level and accuracy of whatever we announce – which is why we’ve now laid out our build plans right up to the target delivery date of four million premises by March 2021.

“We also want to ensure we give our stakeholders – like council leaders, planners and MPs – the best view of where and when we intend to build so we can work together to build as rapidly as possible and help encourage people to take up the technology when it arrives.”

The new Scottish locations are in addition to deployment of full fibre already under way in Edinburgh, Greater Glasgow, West Lothian and Kilmarnock.

To support the build programme, the company hired 3,500 trainee apprentice engineers last year, at a time when many other organisations were making cuts. It has also recruited a further 2,600 trainees this year having announced a further recruitment drive in January.