Blossoming business in West Linton thanks to Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband

More than 550 homes and businesses in West Linton are now able to connect to high-speed fibre broadband, thanks to the £428m Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme.

David and Estelle Weipers from the village are among thousands of people across the Scottish Borders who are benefiting from fibre broadband.

Since signing up, the couple have seen a significant improvement in their service, resulting in better quality of life as it has improved their work-life balance.

The arrival of fibre broadband, thanks to Digital Scotland, could transform the lives of many people in West Linton as it enables many local residents to work from home rather than commuting into Edinburgh and Glasgow.

David says: “With the new fibre service I have seen a significant improvement with the amount of devices that we are able to have connected in the house at the same time. Specifically, it allows Estelle and me to be able to work from home together.”

It is particularly important for Estelle to have a fast speed as she runs her own flower business – lintonblooms.co.uk – from home.

Estelle adds: “I take orders over email and via the website, therefore having fibre broadband is essential for the running of my business. The flowers are ordered from Holland so I need to have access to a fast connection to ensure that the orders are processed effectively.”

Around 24,700 households and businesses across the Scottish Borders can now order high-speed services thanks to the Digital Scotland project. Around 45 towns and villages have benefited so far, including Peebles, Galashiels, Selkirk, Morebattle, Greenlaw and Liddesdale.

More local coverage will follow as engineers from Openreach, the local network business which is part of BT Group, continue work on the ground.

Fibre broadband offers fast and reliable broadband connections at speeds of up to 80Mbps* and there are many suppliers in the marketplace to choose from. Whether you own a business, work from home or want to keep in touch with friends and family, fibre broadband enables multiple users to connect to the internet at high speeds and get better, faster access to online services.

Sara Budge, Programme Director for Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband, says: “It’s fantastic news that the programme has been able to benefit David and Estelle and many others residents and businesses in and around West Linton.”

BT is investing £126 million in the Digital Scotland rollout. Robert Thorburn, BT Scotland’s Fibre Broadband Director, concludes: “Hundreds of West Linton residents can now connect to their best ever broadband speeds when they sign up with a service provider, and we’d encourage local people to check out their options.

“It’s a highly competitive market, so people could potentially be surfing at much higher speeds at a similar cost to their current service. Once you’ve made the switch to super-fast, like David and Estelle, we’re confident you’ll never look back.”

People can check the interactive map on the Digital Scotland website (http://www.scotlandsuperfast.com/where-when/) to find out if they can get the service and further information is also available on Twitter @ScotSuperfast or Facebook at www.facebook.com/scotlandsuperfast

ENDS

*These are the top wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.

Notes to editors:

Due to the current network topography and the economics of deployment, it is likely that not all premises within selected exchange areas will be able to access fibre-based broadband at the same point in the roll-out.

The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme aims to provide fibre broadband infrastructure to parts of Scotland not included in commercial providers’ investment plans. Combined with current commercial roll-out plans, the programme will deliver access to fibre broadband to around 95% of premises by the end of the current contract.

Funding partners include the Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, BT, the UK Government through Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), local authorities and the European Regional Development Fund.