GoFibre awarded £105m contract as part of ongoing rollout of UK government’s Project Gigabit to provide rural and hard-to-reach areas with high-speed internet
Some 63,000 homes and businesses across the north-east of Scotland will be able to access fast, reliable gigabit-speed broadband, with the first connections delivered by summer 2026.
Photo by Jackson Sophat / Unsplash
Among the rural areas to benefit from the newly announced initiative are Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Angus, Dundee, Moray, Highland and parts of Perth and Kinross. Locations it will reach include Forfar, Glamis and Brechin, Cullen, Forres and as far west as Castle Stuart near Inverness Airport.
The £105m contract awarded to GoFibre is the third to be assigned in Scotland as part of the UK government’s Project Gigabit, procured and delivered by the Scottish government. GoFibre was previously awarded £25m to provide broadband internet to some 11,000 premises in the Scottish Borders and East Lothian. Openreach was awarded £157m to provide services to 65,000 premises in the Highlands and Outer Hebrides.
Project Gigabit targets homes and businesses that fall outside broadband suppliers’ commercial plans, as well as outside the Scottish government’s own Reaching 100% (R100) programme which has invested more than £600m in digital infrastructure.
Richard Lochhead MSP, Minister for Business and Employment, says: ‘Fast, reliable broadband is a fundamental building block for Scotland’s economy – and for our society. It’s why we are committed to ensuring connections across the country meet the needs of people and businesses, delivering faster connections to more than a million premises over the last decade.
‘Project Gigabit will build on and complement the transformational work already being delivered through the Scottish Government’s Reaching 100% programme and I look forward to working with the UK Government, as broadband remains a reserved matter, to ensure we deliver more gigabit-capable connections to rural communities.’
Sir Chris Bryant MP, UK Telecoms Minister, adds: ‘Our investment in North-East Scotland will overhaul broadband networks in hard-to-reach areas with slower internet speeds, putting an end to annoying buffering, and creating exciting new opportunities for local businesses and communities. Now the contract is signed, work can begin to deliver internet upgrades that many towns and villages sorely need. It shows how the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change is delivering for people across Scotland, helping to drive economic growth and tear down the UK’s digital divide.’
Neil Conaghan, CEO of GoFibre, says: ‘This Project Gigabit contract award is a hugely exciting development for the north-east of Scotland, and for GoFibre, transforming broadband connectivity across a substantial region of Scotland. As a fast-growing Scottish independent broadband company, GoFibre is committed to improving connectivity in rural and hard-to-reach areas and we cannot wait to get started on this major infrastructure project. Building on the back of our Project Gigabit contract award for the Borders and East Lothian earlier this year, it shows GoFibre is at the heart of rural broadband development in Scotland.’
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