ISP Lothian Broadband, which last year proposed to extend their 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to cover 50,000 premises across rural parts of East and Mid Lothian, has secured a major funding boost of £20m from the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) and their rollout target has been raised to 70,000 premises.
Until relatively recently, the provider was predominantly still a Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) provider for remote homes within their region, but that changed in 2020 after they began to extend their initial deployment of a new full fibre network to cater for the East Lothian village of Gifford (here).
The provider later revealed their intention to target 50,000 premises (mostly those already covered by their existing wireless network) across the so-called “fibre gap” of Scotland’s small towns, rural and semi-rural communities.
Since then, they’ve also expanded into the East Lothian village of Pencaitland, but we’ve heard precious little on their plans for a wider rollout, until now. According to the SNIB, which has pledged to pump £20m into the provider (on top of £5m from existing shareholders), the goal is to invest £75m to cover over 70,000 premises in rural communities and small towns within the next 4 years (i.e. by the end of 2026).
Since then, they’ve also expanded into the East Lothian village of Pencaitland, but we’ve heard precious little on their plans for a wider rollout, until now. According to the SNIB, which has pledged to pump £20m into the provider (on top of £5m from existing shareholders), the goal is to invest £75m to cover over 70,000 premises in rural communities and small towns within the next 4 years (i.e. by the end of 2026).
SNIB Statement (Herald Scotland):
“LBG is already investing to deliver full-fibre broadband across East Lothian. Today’s announcement signals an expansion of LBG’s geographic ambitions, with funding now secured to drive further operational scale-up and rapidly accelerate fibre deployment in 2022.
Digital inequality has been heightened during the pandemic, and the Bank will be supporting a strong and experienced management team to roll out a future-proofed broadband network to tens of thousands of households and businesses who would otherwise be waiting years before receiving a gigabit-capable broadband service.”
Gavin Rodgers, Lothian Broadband, said:
“The backing of the Scottish National Investment Bank enables us to continue our rapid scale-up as we establish the leading fibre-to-the-premise deployment platform for rural communities and small towns across Scotland.”