Scottish Government’s R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) continues to provide access to superfast broadband across Scotland. A reliable connection is key to enabling us to work remotely and keeping us entertained at home.

The R100 SBVS is open to all eligible households and businesses and offers two types of subsidies – a £400 interim voucher and a £5,000 main voucher – to help cover the capital cost of a new broadband installation. Various technology solutions could be offered – fixed wireless, full-fibre, mobile or satellite – this will depend on your location and what is available from your supplier.

In Central Scotland, Gordon Allan, from Carluke in Lanarkshire was frustrated by his broadband speeds before receiving an interim voucher for superfast through a mobile connection. 

Working remotely

Gordon said: “We can now participate in work video calls which is particularly important in the current working from home climate. This was not possible on our previous broadband which was delivering a speeds of 0.6Mbps. As an interim measure, I was using my mobile phone data hotspot, but again this was also subject to frequent connectivity issues.

“Ironically, beforehand when work scheduled video calls I was travelling into the office in order to participate due to the lack of connectivity I was experiencing at home. Having broadband with a reasonable speed has reduced my time spent travelling and made working from home more feasible.”

Home entertainment

“For home life, we are now able to use Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. and can download on PlayStation, which previously took 100+ hours to complete. This can now be delivered in one or two hours depending on the size of the download. Before this we had many challenges, as we could not carry out video calls and were also unable to stream movies or television programmes. It was very frustrating as we were paying for a broadband service that delivered 0.6Mbps with frequent drop-outs.”

Voucher application deadlines

The R100 SBVS is still open for applications. You can check your eligibility for both main and interim vouchers by visiting our online address checker.

• Applications for interim vouchers - worth up to £400 will close on 31 March 2022
• Applications for main vouchers - worth up to £5,000 will continue to be accepted after March 2022

More information on the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme can be found on our website.