Your questions

The R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) continues to play a key role in maximising broadband coverage across the country, but as the first Project Gigabit procurements in Scotland launch, there is an updated approach to how SBVS is being administered in some instances. This will ensure as much stability and alignment as possible across intervention areas whilst delivering an optimised roll-out schedule.

In summary:

• Applications for individual properties with a superfast broadband solution – no change, applications can still be submitted
• Applications for individual properties with a gigabit-capable broadband solution – no change, applications can still be submitted
• Applications for multiple properties with a superfast broadband solution – no change, applications can still be submitted
• Applications for multiple properties with a gigabit-capable broadband solution – these are temporarily paused

This took effect on 19 August 2024.

A similar approach for new projects is in place for the UK Government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS). You can keep up-to-date on voucher eligibility for your home or business via our online address checker and find out more about the process of applying for a voucher via an SBVS registered supplier here.

The scheme has been developed by the Scottish Government to ensure that every household and business in Scotland can access an affordable superfast broadband service. As a recipient of funding (the ‘beneficiary’), the Terms and Conditions outline what to expect when signing up to the scheme through your chosen supplier.

If you have any questions on what is contained in this document, please fill in our enquiry form, and a member of our team will get back to you.

We define an ‘affordable’ service as one that will cost the customer no more than £56.20 (inc VAT) per month – this is the same monthly cost as services delivered through Ofcom's Universal Service Obligation.

The voucher is used to cover any installation costs incurred by a supplier. This includes any equipment that delivers a connection into your address, such as new fibre connections, satellite dishes, outdoor mobile antennas and broadband routers.

You should discuss with your supplier exactly what will be delivered from the voucher cost that can be claimed for your address and any other charges a supplier may wish to make. The voucher will not cover monthly broadband service charges.

Yes. You are required to sign a contract with your chosen supplier for a minimum of 12 months. If you want to end the agreement within the first year, you may be subject to a termination fee, payable to the supplier, and repayment of the value of the voucher.

The R100 SBVS will remain under continuous review and open until such point as the Scottish Government give notice of any changes or closure of the scheme.

If you believe that the online address checker should have indicated that you are eligible for a voucher, but has suggested otherwise, then please contact us via our enquiries form and we will be happy to investigate this for you. 

The service contract between you and a registered SBVS supplier is not a matter for SBVS intervention. There are a number of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) schemes available to you should this be required. All registered SBVS suppliers must be registered with an ADR service.

The registered supplier who claims the voucher funding on your behalf must check that the service delivers speeds of 30Mbps or more when the installation is complete. Once your service is installed, you must validate that the connection provides speeds of 30Mbps or more before the voucher is paid to the supplier.

Campbell & Kennedy is the official audit partner for the R100 SBVS and may be in touch with recipients of voucher funding to collect information on their new connection. This enables monitoring of the performance of registered R100 SBVS suppliers and checks that beneficiaries are satisfied with the broadband service.

Registered suppliers have up to 12 months to install your connection from the point when you confirm details of the voucher request. All SBVS registered suppliers must adhere to this timescale. Your supplier should keep you informed of delivery progress and installation timelines, and you should contact them directly for updates.

Occasionally, there may be instances where unforeseen circumstances beyond the supplier’s reasonable control cause a delay to installation beyond the required timescales. In these circumstances suppliers can be granted an extension to the delivery timescales which is approved by SBVS. Your supplier will keep you fully informed of this.

The SBVS Supplier Terms & Conditions explain the costs which can be claimed through the scheme, as well as those that cannot. Suppliers may choose to charge an additional fee on top of the voucher value, but this is entirely at the supplier's discretion. The SBVS team has no role in determining any additional costs that you may have to pay. This should be made clear to you at the outset before you enter into any contract with a supplier. Any agreement reached is between you as the recipient and your chosen supplier.

If you can already order a superfast service, then contact any commercial provider who offers services in your area to discuss your options. 

If the online address checker states that a commercial provider is planning to offer services in your area soon, then we would encourage you to keep checking the R100 website for updates and look out for communication directly from the provider to you at your property.

The connection delivered to your address will provide superfast broadband speeds of 30Mbps or above. In 99% of cases, R100 contract build is delivering access to gigabit-capable broadband infrastructure - and a future-proofed and resilient connection for decades to come - which is capable of delivering download speed more than 30 times faster than our original commitment.

The online address checker will provide a timeframe for when your connection is expected to be delivered.

Websites, such as Ofcom’s broadband and phone checker, can often let you know which providers operate in your area and provide links to their websites.

Excess construction charges are additional costs beyond the standard connection charge, which require to be paid to connect a property to a supplier’s network. In general, properties in the R100 contracts should be able to be connected for the standard connection fee, with no excess construction charges being applied, however there are some exceptions.

Our R100 contract delivery partner, Openreach, will re-use standard routes to run new cables where possible, for example through existing underground ducts or between overhead poles. In instances where no existing routes are available, the most cost effective route for a new build is classified as the standard route.

Openreach can only apply excess construction charges – the difference between the non-standard and standard costs – if the customer or retail service provider (BT, TalkTalk, Virgin, Sky etc) requests that a non-standard route is used to connect a property.

Homes or businesses who are not in R100 contract build plans, but have received access to a faster broadband connection while R100 build has taken place at nearby properties, may be asked to pay an excess construction charge.

If you think that you’ve incorrectly been asked to pay an excess construction charge, please get in touch with our team.

The R100 programme regularly gathers and analyses data from broadband providers operating in Scotland. This data lets us see which specific addresses they currently provide superfast broadband to now, and which addresses they plan to provide this service for in the future.

Based on this information the R100 programme can then determine which addresses in Scotland do not currently have access to superfast broadband, and are not included in commercial plans to be able to access superfast broadband in the future.

The R100 programme can then fill the gaps in provision of service through the R100 main contracts and the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme. 

R100 currently receives information from the following broadband providers whose networks have been assessed against the UK National Broadband Scheme:

In addition to the list above, there are many more broadband providers across Scotland, including suppliers to our R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme.

If you represent a commercial broadband provider operating in Scotland and want to provide data to the R100 programme, please get in touch here.

The map shows combined information provided to the R100 programme by all broadband providers operating in Scotland, as well as the most up-to-date information available on broadband infrastructure planned and delivered through the R100 programme.

Deployment of digital infrastructure at a national scale is complex, involving the need to overcome significant planning and engineering challenges. In addition, data received from commercial broadband providers can be subject to change as information available on their networks and ongoing plans for expansion are refined.

Inevitably this means that for a relatively small proportion of premises, the route to superfast broadband may change as the programme progresses.      

Although the message provided for your address may change, if the data we have received does not indicate that superfast broadband is already available to you the R100 map will always provide you with information about alternative solutions for you to access it.

If you dispute the connectivity information about your address that’s returned on the online address checker please submit a data query through this form. The connection status of your address will be investigated and you’ll be kept up-to-date of the findings.

The Scottish Government gather information from several sources, including multiple broadband providers to be able to present the data at an individual premises level on scotlandsuperfast.com. Verification of the source data is factored into the timescales that are shown on the postcode checker, which start out on a ‘by end of year’ basis and then move to a six month delivery window when build is within one year.

Openreach use exchange level data to give an indicative timescale of their commercial build at exchange level via their online interactive map. This map shows their commercial build only. The Openreach postcode checker, on the same website, provides more information into future build at premises level, but does not currently provide the more detailed R100 timescales available on scotlandsuperfast.com.

People can sign-up to receive email alerts on the Openreach website, which will keep individuals informed predominantly when their service is ready to order for commercial, funded voucher programmes and R100 contracted build.

The technology that’s used to make landline phone calls in the UK, known as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), is due to be switched off over the next few years. This once-in-a-generation upgrade to future-proof the UK’s landlines is essential and will replace technology that is fast becoming obsolete.

The telecoms industry must migrate customers from the analogue service to new digital services that enable telephone calls to be made over broadband services. As the primary focus is to switch over the telephony signal, the delivery of the R100 programme will not be impacted.

If you have a questions about the PSTN switch-off, please speak to your service provider or visit the Ofcom website.