GoFibre has started construction in six more Aberdeenshire communities — St Fergus, Inchmarlo, Kincardine O'Neil, Collieston, Newburgh, and Kingswells — bringing full fibre broadband to around 1,000 homes and businesses that have never had it before, part of its £105m Project Gigabit contract for North East Scotland.
GoFibre, the Project Gigabit contractor delivering full fibre broadband across North East Scotland, has started construction in six more Aberdeenshire communities: St Fergus, Inchmarlo, Kincardine O'Neil, Collieston, Newburgh, and Kingswells. Around 1,000 homes and businesses across these areas will get full fibre broadband for the first time.
The build is part of a £105m contract — funded by the UK Government and delivered through the Scottish Government's Project Gigabit programme — targeting 63,000 premises across Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Angus, Dundee, Highland, Moray, and Perth & Kinross that commercial rollouts were expected to miss. The first connections went live earlier this year in Ezdell, Inverbervie, and Longforgan, with Montrose, Dunkeld, Bankfoot, Newtonhill, Portlethen, Alyth, and Coupar Angus following through the summer.
It's real progress for the people in these six villages — until now, none of them had a full fibre option at all. But it's worth keeping the scale in view: this is around 1,000 of the 63,000 premises this contract covers, awarded back in July 2025. And infrastructure alone doesn't close the exclusion gap — GoFibre's entry-level package starts at £22.50 a month, well above the £10–£15 social tariffs some providers offer to households on qualifying benefits. Once a full fibre line reaches a street, it's still worth checking for a cheaper option — see our get help page.
The Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme, worth up to £5,000 towards a faster connection, closes to new applications on 20 November 2026. In Aberdeenshire alone, 2,089 premises are still eligible and have not used it.
WIRES has sent its submission to the Competition and Markets Authority's inquiry into BT's purchase of TalkTalk, asking that any approval protects prices, guarantees access to a social tariff and recognises the greater effect in rural Scotland. The full text is here. Comments closed on 9 October; the CMA reports by 19 October.
We read the published digital strategies of Scotland's 32 councils. Of the 24 we could verify, only Glasgow has a standalone strategy on digital exclusion. In 22, it is a theme inside a plan about the council's own services. Eight we couldn't confirm.
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