More households and businesses in Largs and West Kilbride are now able to connect to high-speed fibre thanks to the £428M Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband roll-out.

These towns are among the latest to be reached by the project, extending existing coverage in these areas.

Most of the latest local connections to be upgraded were previously ‘Exchange Only’ lines, a historic legacy of the copper network once thought to be out of the reach of high-speed fibre services.

Such lines run directly from the exchange to homes and business premises, bypassing the usual road-side cabinets which are a vital part of the fibre roll-out.

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

Local people need to sign up for the new, faster services with an internet service provider, as upgrades are not automatic.

Fibre broadband offers fast and reliable broadband connections at speeds of up to 80Mbps and there are many suppliers in the marketplace to choose from. Please note however that these are the top wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.

Whether you own a business, work from home or want to keep in touch with friends and family, fibre broadband enables multiple users to connect to the internet at high speeds and get better, faster access to online services.

The programme is delivered through two projects – led by Highlands and Islands Enterprise in its area and the Scottish Government in the rest of Scotland. Other funding partners include the UK Government through Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), BT, local authorities and the EU via the European Regional Development Fund.

BT is investing £126M, and the total project value includes around £18 million which is being reinvested back in to the programme as a result of stronger than expected early take-up.

Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy and Connectivity, Fergus Ewing, said: “More than 90% of Scotland now has fibre broadband available thanks to both the programme and commercial coverage. The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme is progressing further and we are reaching some very small and more remote communities, as well as extending coverage in places like Largs and West Kilbride.

“The Scottish Government is committed to delivering 100% superfast broadband access across Scotland by 2021.”

Local people can check the Digital Scotland website www.scotlandsuperfast.com to find out if they can get a fibre-based service.