A broadband company founded in the Scottish Borders has passed 1,000 customer connections around Eyemouth, less than nine years after the business was established in Duns.
GoFibre said homes and businesses connected to its full-fibre network can receive broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps, while its wider network in the Scottish Borders now has more than 34,000 premises ready to connect.
The 1,000 figure covers the wider Eyemouth exchange area rather than the town alone. Broadband analysts ThinkBroadband sought clarification from GoFibre after the milestone was announced and said the company had almost 4,000 premises ready to connect across an area which includes Eyemouth, Coldingham, St Abbs, Ayton, Reston, Burnmouth and Chirnside.
That would put customer take-up across the area at about 25%.
The milestone is also the latest stage in the growth of a company which began in the Borders and has since become involved in some of Scotland’s largest rural broadband projects.
GoFibre Holdings Limited was incorporated in Scotland in November 2017 as Borderlink Broadband Limited. It changed its name in 2023 and is now registered in Edinburgh. Companies House records classify the business as operating in wired and other telecommunications services.
Its origins, however, remain firmly in the Borders.
The company was established in Duns at a time when broadband provision in parts of the region was still conspicuously uneven.
Eyemouth itself appeared in evidence submitted to the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee in January 2018.
Kenneth Walker, technical director of Eyemouth-based technology company Inspired By Technology, described a town in which the availability of fibre broadband could effectively change depending on which side of the harbour a business occupied.
He told MPs that the more heavily populated residential side had high-speed fibre connectivity while the less populated industrial and commercial side did not.
The company said poor or unaffordable connectivity was sufficiently serious that it advised some clients to disregard particular locations when looking for business premises. It also reported cases elsewhere in the Borders where businesses had experienced delays or unusually high construction costs when trying to obtain better connections.
The wider problem was acknowledged by Scottish Borders Council.
Its 2018 monitoring statement said that although significant parts of the Borders had become fibre-enabled, there remained places where fibre broadband was unavailable, naming the Ettrick Valley, Yarrow Valley and Tweedsmuir. The council said improved digital connectivity in remote rural areas continued to require attention and described connectivity as critical to the region’s economic development and competitiveness.
GoFibre has expanded into that market through a combination of commercial network building, private investment, institutional lending and government-backed broadband contracts.
In 2022, infrastructure investor Gresham House announced a £164m investment in Borderlink Broadband through its British Sustainable Infrastructure Fund strategy. That followed an earlier £10.5m investment in 2021.
Gresham House said at the time that the larger investment would allow the company to accelerate fibre construction and recruit additional staff, with a particular focus on communities where broadband provision had historically been weaker.
Publicly backed infrastructure contracts have since become another substantial part of the company’s expansion.
In February 2025, GoFibre was awarded the first Project Gigabit contract in Scotland.
The £26m contract covers the Scottish Borders and East Lothian and was expected at the time of its award to bring gigabit-capable broadband to around 11,000 homes and businesses in harder-to-reach areas.
Project Gigabit is funded by the UK Government, while the Scottish Government is responsible for procuring and managing the Scottish contracts.
Communities identified for the Borders and East Lothian programme included St Abbs, Broughton and Ettrickbridge in the Borders, alongside Athelstaneford and Innerwick in East Lothian.
A considerably larger contract followed five months later.
In July 2025, GoFibre was awarded a £105m Project Gigabit contract covering parts of north-east Scotland. The Scottish Government said around 63,000 premises across Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen, Angus, Dundee, Moray, Highland and parts of Perth and Kinross were expected to benefit.
Funding for GoFibre’s expansion has also come from the Scottish National Investment Bank and Hamburg Commercial Bank.
In August 2025, the two institutions announced a combined £125m financing package. The Scottish National Investment Bank provided a £45m debt facility, with Hamburg Commercial Bank providing a further £80m.
The financing was intended to support construction of gigabit-capable broadband to more than 130,000 premises, including delivery of the company’s two Scottish Project Gigabit contracts.
The Scottish National Investment Bank described GoFibre as an independent Scottish provider and a Scottish scale-up.
The money from the Scottish National Investment Bank and Hamburg Commercial Bank is lending rather than grant funding. Gresham House is an infrastructure investor. Project Gigabit, by contrast, uses government funding to support construction in places where commercial deployment alone is unlikely to provide gigabit-capable connections.
Together they illustrate the amount of capital required to turn a locally established telecommunications company into an infrastructure builder operating across large areas of Scotland.
GoFibre says its wider network now covers more than 135,000 premises across the north and east of Scotland and northern England.
The company has also continued activity closer to home.
In Eyemouth it has sponsored the Herring Queen Festival, supported mental health resources created by pupils at Eyemouth High School and held a careers event at the school.
It has also launched its GoFurther Fund in the Scottish Borders, providing support for community and charitable organisations within areas served by its network.
Andy Hepburn, GoFibre’s chief operating officer, said the company was proud to have reached the latest milestone in the region where it began.
“As a Borders-born company, we are incredibly proud to reach this milestone in Eyemouth,” he said.
He said improved connectivity was making activities ranging from working from home to gaming easier, and added that the company intended to continue investing in Borders communities.
For Eyemouth, the arrival of another full-fibre network is part of a much broader change in telecommunications infrastructure.
Sources
Companies House — GoFibre Holdings Limited, company number SC582522 — company record, incorporated 27 November 2017; accessed 18 August 2026.
House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee — Written evidence submitted by Inspired By Technology Ltd: Digital connectivity in Scotland — January 2018.
Scottish Borders Council — Scottish Borders Local Development Plan 2 Monitoring Statement — 2018.
Gresham House — Gresham House boosts British connectivity with £164m investment into Borderlink — 10 January 2022.
Scottish Government Digital Connectivity — First contract awarded for Project Gigabit in Scotland — 21 February 2025.
Scottish Government Digital Connectivity — Boosting broadband in the North East — 15 July 2025.
Scottish Government Digital Connectivity — North East Scotland — last updated 15 July 2025.
Scottish National Investment Bank — Bank supports GoFibre’s rural broadband rollout — 18 August 2025.
Scottish National Investment Bank — GoFibre investment profile — accessed 18 August 2026.
ThinkBroadband — GoFibre says over 1,000 customers connected in Eyemouth – UPDATED — 18 August 2026.
