More Than 300,000 Scottish Premises Have No Gigabit Broadband and No Commercial Rollout Expected

More than 300,000 homes and business premises across Scotland have no existing gigabit-capable broadband infrastructure and no qualifying commercial deployment expected within the next three years, according to newly published Scottish Government records.

The figure appears in the outcome of the June 2026 Open Market Review, published on 14 October. It identifies 300,735 premises classified as Gigabit White, meaning commercial providers have not demonstrated that qualifying gigabit infrastructure is available or likely to be developed within the assessment period.

These are not necessarily properties without an internet connection. Some may already have ordinary broadband, including connections adequate for everyday use. The classification concerns access to networks capable of delivering gigabit services, rather than whether a household can get online at all.

Nevertheless, the results establish the scale of the territory still outside confirmed commercial gigabit provision or deployment plans.

Where the Commercial Rollout Stops

Broadband companies generally prioritise places where sufficient demand and manageable construction costs make investment commercially worthwhile.

The economics can be substantially different in Scotland’s remote settlements, islands and sparsely populated countryside. A connection serving a few properties may require lengthy stretches of cable, engineering work, wayleaves and additional infrastructure.

Those costs help explain why public intervention remains necessary even as commercial fibre networks continue expanding elsewhere.

The Scottish Government’s review was conducted between 10 June and 9 July. Providers were asked to identify existing infrastructure and credible plans for the following three years.

The information is used to determine where public subsidies could support construction without unnecessarily paying for networks that commercial operators are already prepared to deliver.

Under the classification system, White premises are those without an existing qualifying gigabit network or sufficiently credible planned provision. Grey premises have one such network available or planned, while Black premises have at least two qualifying infrastructures from different suppliers.

A fourth category, Under Review, identifies cases where providers have declared coverage or planned construction but the available evidence leaves questions about whether the network exists or will be delivered.

Nearly 129,000 More Premises Remain Under Review

The June review identified 128,239 premises in the Under Review category. This figure sits between confirmed commercial coverage and areas that can straightforwardly qualify for public intervention.

For some properties, a supplier has reported a future deployment but has not yet provided enough evidence to remove doubts about delivery. Others are subject to uncertainty concerning claimed existing coverage.

The government must therefore distinguish between genuine commercial plans and projects that have not progressed sufficiently to establish a dependable timetable.

Its published methodology permits Under Review premises to be included within a deferred scope of publicly supported procurement. A further review must establish their final eligibility before subsidised construction can proceed.

This avoids immediately subsidising a location where private investment may be forthcoming, but it also creates a period during which a property’s future classification is unresolved.

Residents may understandably be less interested in subsidy terminology than in knowing when a faster, more reliable connection will become available.

More Than 2.6 Million Premises Have One or More Qualifying Networks

The review records 1,521,203 premises in the Black category, where at least two qualifying gigabit infrastructures are available or planned.

A further 1,086,169 premises fall within the Grey category, with one qualifying infrastructure available or planned.

Together, those classifications account for approximately 2.61 million premises. The records do not mean all those properties already have a working gigabit subscription; planned infrastructure is included.

That qualification matters because infrastructure availability and actual household adoption are different measurements. A fibre network passing a property does not automatically mean the occupant has subscribed to it, and a supplier’s credible plan is not the same as completed construction.

The review is fundamentally a map of the market’s present and expected infrastructure, not a count of customers receiving gigabit-speed service.

A New Test for Rural Broadband Policy

Scotland has already committed substantial public funding to improving connectivity in areas that the commercial market has struggled to serve.

The Reaching 100% programme and UK Government broadband interventions have sought to extend faster services into some of the most difficult locations.

However, the latest review demonstrates that the commercial market alone is not expected to provide qualifying gigabit infrastructure to more than 300,000 premises within the next three years.

It also shows why postcode-level figures must be treated carefully. A postcode can contain properties with different network classifications. In the government’s published mapping, a postcode containing even one White premise is classified as White for presentation purposes.

Consequently, a map showing a White postcode does not establish that every property within it lacks gigabit provision.

The government says its underlying records include premises-level information and classifications by local authority, enabling more precise decisions about intervention.

The central question is now how many of the 300,735 White premises will be included in funded programmes, and how quickly construction can reach them.

For those properties, the newly published review offers an unusually clear distinction: commercial providers have not established a qualifying gigabit rollout, leaving their future connectivity dependent on further investment decisions, potentially including public support.