The Scottish Government is more than two thirds through its programme to upgrade all of Scotland to high-speed broadband.

It has recently passed the 500,000 homes and businesses milestone under its £410 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband project.

Kevin Maley of Strutt & Parker’s Inverness office said: “Whilst many of our property sales in Inverness-shire are to people who want a bolt-hole from which they can escape the pressures of modern life, there are also so many people who now work from home and require good broadband in order to make their business work. Access to such service will really help those living in many rural communities throughout Scotland.”

From Shetland to Gretna connected

Under the programme, which has two years left to run, more than 2,200 new fibre street cabinets have been built, serving remote, rural communities like the Shetlands and the Isle of Whithorn in Dumfries & Galloway.

So far, over 5,000km of fibre cable has been laid across the country.

The milestone was marked in Gretna, when the town’s Famous Blacksmith Shop, where couples often get married, signed up to the fibre broadband.

Infrastructure Secretary Keith Brown says the coming year will mark a “high point” in the move towards world-class digital connectivity for Scotland by 2020.

On average, they are connecting around 7,000 new premises every week.

Boost for local economies

Lynda Denton, Head of Sales & Marketing at Gretna Green Ltd, says the arrival of high-speed broadband has given the local economy a real boost.

Stuart Robertson, Director of Digital at Highlands and Islands Enterprise, which is managing the region’s rollout, says fibre broadband availability has grown by 55% since 2014.

He says that getting connected is “vital” to those living and working in the region.

The programme, which will pass 750,000 premises by the end of March 2018, will connect 95% of all premises in Scotland to services at speeds of up to 80Mbps.