We spoke to Nick who lives with his wife in Kelso in the Scottish Borders. They were connected to superfast broadband through the Scottish Government’s R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS).

The scheme helps homes and businesses access faster broadband by offering a subsidy of up to £5,000 to eligible premises – this covers all direct installation costs, which is carried out by an R100 SBVS registered supplier.

Nick is creative - his passions involve photography, film, web development and writing books. This needed fast upload and download speeds for him to carry out his tasks properly. Nick explains:

“I would have to put aside a whole morning just to upload a book file to the publishers! As well as writing, I work in web development which was a challenge with slow internet speeds. I had two sites going live in one day, the internet couldn’t keep up with the uploads and downloads – it was horrific.”

Now retired, Nick and his wife no longer rely on the internet as much as they used to but it’s still important for their day-to-day lives. Nick says:

“We participate in a lot of community groups which would host online meetings, it was hard to get connected and stay connected with sound and video. In our spare time we do like to watch online shows and competitive sport which needs a fast and reliable connection.”

Thankfully, things changed for the better as they got connected through the R100 SBVS. Nick tells us how it happened:

“We’re out in the middle of nowhere with a dreadful connection, so I did some research and found the superfast website. From there our supplier, GoFibre, also confirmed that we were eligible for the voucher scheme. It was all very

straightforward, they helped us fill out the forms we needed then they took it on and got everything else put in place for us. Before we knew it, we were connected.”

GoFibre successfully connected Nick and eight neighbouring properties to faster broadband using Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) technology.

“Now that we have faster, more reliable internet, it makes life much easier. We’re in our community meetings with a great signal strength and no loss of sound or video. We got connected just before the pandemic, so the connection was crucial for us to stay connected during that time too. I still do some work, so this has gotten a lot easier for me, I wish I had had it before I retired!”

Get involved

Visit our Vouchers section to find out more about the process of engaging a supplier – who will apply to the scheme on your behalf – and to check out some of the technologies that may be available to you.

Find out if you’re eligible for the R100 SBVS by entering your postcode into our online address checker.