A total of 28 new exchanges have been announced as the next to see premises enabled for fibre broadband through the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme. It is fully expected that these premises will be enabled within the next six months, although there is a possibility that some timings may change.

Dumfries and Galloway will see the biggest impact, with no less than 11 exchanges set to benefit: Ardwell, Auchencairn, Bankshill, Cummertrees, Dundrennan, Haugh of Urr, Kippford, Kirkpatrick Durham, Kirkgunzeon, Kirkbean and Ringford.

Aberdeenshire will see the enablement of exchanges at Sauchen, Schivas, St Fergus, Wartle as well as further premises at Rothiemay.

Right at the other end of Scotland, the Scottish Borders is set to see Drochil Castle, Gordon, Grantshouse and additional homes and businesses at Innerleithen join the fibre broadband revolution.

Almost all the work planned for the next tranche of upgrades will be on ‘Exchange Only’ (EO) lines, a historic legacy of the copper network which present unique engineering challenges. They run directly from the exchange to homes and business premises, bypassing the usual road-side cabinets which are a vital part of the fibre rollout.

 Engineers have worked out an innovative way to integrate these lines into the fibre rollout, rearranging the existing network and laying hundreds of metres of new cables to reroute the lines through extra road-side cabinets, to overcome the hurdle.

Other exchanges which have recently been announced as set to benefit include Farnell and Inverarity in Angus, Bankfoot and Gask in Perth and Kinross, Douglas Water in South Lanarkshire as well as additional premises at Dundee Park and Airth and Denny in Falkirk.