Aberdeen first in Scotland to get full fibre broadband 'for nearly all'

Aberdeen is to be the first city in Scotland to receive "full fibre" internet connections to nearly all its homes and businesses.

Broadband network specialist CityFibre is investing at least £40m in the project in partnership with Vodafone.

Work on building the network will begin this summer, with customers expected to receive gigabit speeds - 1,000 megabits per second or higher.

The companies said it would mean a "superior product at a lower cost".

Aberdeen is the second of 12 UK cities to be included in the rollout.

CityFibre and Vodafone said it was chosen "because of the city's emergent tech sector, the council's forward-looking commitment to 'smart city' initiatives, and the strength of its support for the project".

Urban upgrade

Openreach, which currently supplies broadband across the UK, said it welcomed the competition the CityFibre/Vodafone move would bring.

A spokesman said: "For many years we've been the largest investor in Aberdeen's digital infrastructure, and as a result it's now one of the best connected places in Britain.

"Nearly all of Aberdeen (96%) can order 'superfast' (above 30Mbps) broadband services today from a choice of retailers over our network, and just 0.7% of households can't access a service of at least 10Mbps. Businesses can also order 1Gbps Ethernet connections across the city.

"We've invested more than £11bn into our network over the last decade and we're continuing to upgrade urban areas like Aberdeen as well as more rural locations that are much harder to serve."

THE SOURCE FOR THIS ARTICLE WAS FROM THE BBC