HIGH-SPEED fibre broadband is coming to 11,000 homes and business in North Ayrshire in the latest phase of the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband scheme.

Since the £410 million programme started last year, over 3,400km of fibre cable has been laid across Scotland with more than 275,000 homes and businesses now able to connect to fibre broadband.

North Ayrshire is just one of over 200 locations across the country as engineers from BT’s local network business, Openreach, continues work on the ground.

Irvine is set to get additional coverage which will improve the overall connection which is available and also bring high-speed fibre broadband to new locations.

The state of the art technology will mean that multiple user in a home or business can access the internet, download and share large files at the same time at download speeds of up to 80 megabytes per second and upload speeds of up to 20 megabytes per second.

The Programme Director for Digital Scotland, Sara Budge, said: “It is great to be celebrating the first year of deployment of the £410 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme, while announcing that more exchanges will be included, with areas in North Ayrshire being able to connect to fibre broadband for the first time.

“The project is developing a high speed fibre network which is changing the face of broadband. By reaching out to those who would not have been covered through the commercial market – in towns and into some of our most rural areas – we are ensuring that the connections which are made will bring many benefits to the Scottish people at home and in business.” Brendan Dick, Director of BT Scotland, is pleased with how the scheme is developing throughout the country. He said: “The rollout of fibre broadband across Scotland is one of the biggest and most complex civil engineering projects taking place in the UK today and we’re proud to be at the heart of it.

“It’s great to be announcing so many new locations this week as we celebrate our first, full year of deployment. In any project on this scale plans can change as engineering work progresses, for a variety of reasons.

“It’s important people understand that our plans aren’t set in stone but give the best possible forward view of where we expect to go next with the rollout.

“The website at www.digitalscotland.org/whereandwhen is updated frequently and is an excellent source of information as people can check the latest details based on their own postcodes.

“I’d also encourage people to register online for updates when there’s news for their postcode area, such as when fibre broadband becomes available.”