The Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) has today announced that they’ve invested another £10m into ISP Highland Broadband (aka – Lothian Broadband), which is building a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) network across rural parts of the Highlands.
The provider, which started building in 2022 (here), previously aimed to provide access to gigabit-capable broadband to over 20,000 premises in the Highlands by early 2024. Since 2022 they’ve also completed builds in Alness, Invergordon, Evanton, Tain and many other locations, although we haven’t had a solid build update from them since late last year.
As part of HB’s latest deployment phase, they’re currently building across the Black Isle, Great Glen and the Cairngorms areas. The latest injection of £10m will no doubt help that work to continue.
Avin Rogers, CEO of Highland Broadband, said:
“The Highlands and Islands face unique connectivity challenges, but we view overcoming these barriers as essential for providing what should be a basic service for everyone in Scotland. The Bank’s continued support has enabled us to accelerate our plan to connect these regions, which ultimately helps reduce place based inequality in areas such as education, employment and healthcare.”
Andy Clapp, SNIB Executive Director, said:
“Our support of Highland Broadband’s multi-year effort to connect all parts of Scotland aligns with one of our core missions to increase equality through improving spaces. The installation of gigabit capable networks, which so many of us take for granted, is already having a real-world impact that’s strengthening the threads of Highland communities.”
Residential customers of the service can expect to pay from £34.99 per month (discounted to £29.99) for an unlimited 100Mbps (symmetric) service on a 24-month term, which rises up to £89.99 (discounted to £54.99) for their top 2Gbps tier! Various phone, pay TV and mesh WiFi solutions can also be added at an extra cost.