> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.peoplesfuture.scot/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # 22. Digital Scotland 🟢 - URL: https://www.peoplesfuture.scot/22-digital-scotland/ - Published: 2026-08-20T11:55:45.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-20T11:55:45.000Z - Description: Ofcom’s July 2025 snapshot found full-fibre in 71 per cent of Scottish homes and gigabit-capable in 81 per cent. By 30 July 2026, R100 had delivered 99,434 contract connections and 6,299 voucher connections. - Author: The Peoples Future Scotland - Tags: The 28 Ofcom’s July 2025 snapshot found full-fibre in 71 per cent of Scottish homes and gigabit-capable in 81 per cent. By 30 July 2026, R100 had delivered 99,434 contract connections and 6,299 voucher connections. Audit Scotland still records about 15 per cent of adults without foundational digital skills. Skills and subsidy of uneconomic premises are Scottish. Spectrum and most telecoms regulation are not. --- ## Current reality ### Legal and institutional position Further education, community learning, SDS, libraries and digital-inclusion programmes are devolved. R100 is a Scottish Government contract programme with Openreach, plus the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (up to £5,000). Project Gigabit is UK-funded and jointly managed; Scottish Ministers act as contracting authority on Scottish lots. Ofcom regulates. Spectrum and the core electronic-communications framework are reserved. That does not stop Scotland paying for a last-mile build the market will not do. ### The latest official numbers **R100, 30 July 2026.** Planned contract delivery: 112,939\. Delivered under contracts (including additional build): 99,434\. SBVS: 6,299\. North lot: 36,924 of 60,764 planned. Central and South already above original planned totals. About 80 per cent of activity is rural. Programme cost: more than £600 million (Scottish contribution about £591 million). **Project Gigabit.** Largest Scottish lot: £157 million with Openreach for Highlands, Outer Hebrides and other hard-to-reach premises (about 65,000). January 2026 addition: £18 million for about 12,500 premises in Dumfries and Galloway. Separate £26 million GoFibre lot in the Borders and East Lothian. The combined Scottish Gigabit build is now described as more than 77,000 premises. **Ofcom Connected Nations, July 2025.** Residential full-fibre: 71 per cent (+9 points; +250,000 premises). Gigabit-capable: 81 per cent. Urban full-fibre: 76 per cent; rural: 50 per cent. Take-up where full-fibre exists: 43 per cent (UK 42 per cent). Superfast coverage is already high; the remaining decent-broadband failures are a small rural residual. **Skills and inclusion.** Audit Scotland (2024): 15 per cent of adults lack foundation skills; about one in six lack the skills needed for everyday life; 91 per cent of households have internet access; social-tariff take-up was 8.3 per cent in that report. Digital Learning Initiative launched 25 September 2025: free online courses from AWS, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft and Salesforce via SDS. Connecting Scotland reached more than 60,000 households with devices, data and champions; later phases were evaluated as improving job search. Device-and-connectivity funding was later scaled back from the emergency peak. ### How it is experienced in daily life A Highlands premises on the North lot may still wait while a Central-belt street already has two commercial fibres. A household with a fibre past the door may not take it. An older adult who cannot change a password is excluded from a digital-first GP form even when the cable is there. A voucher requires the householder to start the process; the R100 evaluation found most eligible non-applicants had not heard of the scheme. ### How it got here Commercial build covered dense places. R100 was designed for the rest, originally as superfast, then largely as full fibre. Costs rose with terrain and specification. Skills provision multiplied as time-limited schemes. Connecting Scotland was a pandemic instrument that was not kept at that scale. Public services moved online faster than the last 15 per cent of skills. ### What has already been tried, and what that showed Contracts reach premises; vouchers need demand. Evaluation of R100 found awareness, not only engineering, as a barrier to take-up. Device-plus-champion works; it is expensive per household. Free vendor courses help people already online. They do not replace a library class for someone who has never switched on a tablet. Audit Scotland asked for clearer leadership across public bodies. That request predates the 2025 Digital Learning Initiative. --- ## What needs to happen ### The improvement in measurable terms - North lot delivery against the remaining 60,764. - Rural full-fibre rising from 50 per cent. - Take-up rising from 43 per cent where fibre exists. - Foundation-skills share falling from 15 per cent. - Social-tariff take-up published and rising. - Connecting-Scotland-style support for those who still have no usable device. ### Sequence Finish the contracted North build. Use SBVS and Gigabit lots for premises outside those contracts. Treat take-up and skills as the same job in the last urban pockets. Put a single public front door on the existing course catalogue. ### Workforce, capital and standards Civils, planning, island logistics. Digital champions in libraries, housing and care — not only online self-study. Unit cost in rock and sparse crofts will stay high. ### What would count as success in twelve months - An R100 update with North delivery materially above 36,924 - Next Ofcom Scotland report with rural full-fibre above 50 per cent - A published national skills offer with one eligibility rule and completion data - Social-tariff take-up above the last Audit Scotland figure --- ## What can be done under current powers ### Who holds the lever Scottish Ministers: R100, SBVS, SDS, colleges, inclusion budgets. UK: Project Gigabit money, Ofcom, spectrum. Local authorities: libraries, social housing Wi-Fi, planning. ### The statute, budget or direction R100 contracts; SBVS rules; college and CLD funding; refreshed Digital Strategy (late 2025); UK Gigabit contracts co-managed in Scotland. ### What is already possible and unused A single branded all-ages offer wrapping DLI, college and library provision. Mandatory promotion of SBVS to remaining eligible premises (the evaluation found awareness below 20 per cent in some eligible groups). Social-housing connectivity as a grant condition. Device loans through libraries after Connecting Scotland’s peak. Measuring completion, not only enrolment. ### What would still be true if management improved tomorrow The North lot would still be the expensive remainder. Some premises would still be satellite or fixed wireless. Fifteen per cent without foundation skills would not vanish in a year. Spectrum would still be reserved. --- ## Where the limits are ### Law and reserved powers Scotland cannot allocate spectrum or rewrite the UK communications code. It can subsidise build and teach people to use a connection. ### Money R100 already exceeds £600 million. A further large top-up is a Budget choice, not a new power. The draft figure of around £200 million is a scale discussion, not an official programme. ### Workforce and capital Remote civils bind. Champion capacity is bound by skills. Vendor MOOCs do not staff a care-home digital session. ### Time, geography, UK-wide systems North completion is still projected for 2027–28\. LEO satellite sits outside SBVS unless a provider joins. Affordability of monthly data is a household budget, not a duct. ### Political difficulty, kept separate from legal impossibility Choosing last-mile fibre over other capital is politics. Calling a 71 per cent fibre country “unconnected” is not accurate. --- ## What is not yet known Ofcom’s next Scotland snapshot after July 2025\. Final North-lot outturn cost per premise. DLI completion and labour-market effect. How many of the last \~10,000 decent-broadband failures remain after Gigabit build. Whether Connecting Scotland device funding returns at scale. --- ## Honest summary **Achievable now.** Finish R100 North. Push SBVS to people who have not heard of it. Unify the skills catalogue. Restore targeted device-and-champion support. Raise take-up where fibre already exists. **Only partly achievable.** 100 per cent full-fibre to every island outbuilding. Zero adults without foundation skills. A single entitlement that reaches people who will not walk into a library. **Would require reserved change.** Spectrum policy and the reserved communications framework — not R100, not SDS, not a college course. **Colour mark: green.** The remaining work is Scottish subsidy, Scottish teaching and Scottish take-up. Green is not a claim that 50 per cent rural full-fibre is finished, or that 15 per cent without foundation skills is acceptable. **What this item does not settle.** It does not add a £200 million line as policy. It does not treat satellite as failure. It does not count a passed premise as a used service. The test is whether the next Ofcom report and the next R100 table move rural coverage and take-up together, and whether the foundation-skills share is measured down from 15 per cent. --- ## Connection Item 16 is the rural last premises and the same R100/Gigabit contracts. Item 7 is the wider skills system. Item 10 is the firms that hire the advanced digital intake. Public-service design assumes the connection this item is still completing. --- **People’s Future Scotland**