More than 80,000 homes and businesses across Aberdeenshire are now able to connect to high-speed fibre broadband thanks to the £428m Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme.

The programme announced last week that more than 95 per cent of homes and businesses across Scotland can now access fibre broadband. Combined with commercial coverage, the DSSB programme exceeded its target of 95 per cent on schedule.

Dawn Henderson, Managing Director of IT Training and Development, who lives and works from home in Kintore, is among the thousands of people benefiting from fibre broadband after signing up with a service provider.

Many other Aberdeenshire areas now covered as part of the Digital Scotland programme include Aboyne, Banchory, Gardenstown, Crimond, Fettercairn and St Cyrus. More local coverage will follow as engineers from Openreach, Scotland’s digital network business, continue work on the ground during 2018 using extra funds generated by strong take-up.

In order to grow her training business, Dawn had previously spent 75 per cent of the year travelling overseas. Now however, thanks to her new superfast broadband connection, she can work remotely using video conferencing via Skype.

Dawn says: “In the past, I simply could not rely on Skype as it would often break up. My new 60Mbps fibre connection means I can now be certain of a crystal-clear connection, so I can hold video conferences with people on the other side of the world just as effectively as if we were in the same room. My clients and I can share the same desktop screen and look at it together. Reliable Skype is transformational for my business.”

As with other remote Scottish businesses, fibre broadband availability has enabled Dawn to open up exciting new opportunities to streamline the business and make more use of cloud technology.

Dawn adds: “Having once experienced a bad flood, I am very conscious of the need for safe back-ups and I will be carrying out data back-up via the cloud in future. I also use applications such as DropBox for file transfer and I find it is now much faster to use.

“What’s more, my family enjoys many online activities including online gaming. Before fibre broadband, we had to constantly negotiate with each other as to who would go online next as it was practically impossible to all be online at the same time, without affecting the other’s experience. I found it really inconvenient juggling this with the business and it is a huge relief for us that this is no longer an issue.”

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 Dawn Henderson and IT Training and Development along with many other residents and businesses in and around Aberdeenshire.”

Robert Thorburn, Fibre Broadband Director for Openreach in Scotland, added: “Thousands of people across Aberdeenshire now have the opportunity to access their best ever broadband speeds when they sign up with a service provider, and reap all the benefits Dawn has outlined and more.

“There’s lots of competition out there and people may find they could be surfing at much higher speeds at a similar cost to their current service. Once you’ve tried life in the internet fast lane, you’ll never look back.”

People can check the interactive map on the Digital Scotland website (scotlandsuperfast.com) 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

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