This page provides information about the campaign to provide fibre broadband to Kirkandrews using the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme. This is part of a UK Government initiative to enable rural communities to contract their own fibre broadband connection through the use of vouchers that are worth up to £1,500 per property or £3,500 per small business.
We have received the detailed estimate of costs to install fibre broadband to Kirkandrews from OpenReach. It came to £14,387. We will be able to cover this cost by using the Rural Gigabit Broadband Vouchers from 10 properties at £1,500 each. OpenReach are now preparing contract documents in readiness for proceeding with the installation.
Here are links to documents associated with the Kirkandrews community application for broadband vouchers.
Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme Terms & Conditions
Kirkandrews initial quotation for service provision
Final offer letter from OpenReach
Update – September 2020
We have received notification from Openreach that the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme is no longer applicable in Scotland because there is a Scottish Government initiative to deliver fibre broadband to all properties under the “Reaching 100%” (R100) programme. There is now a Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) that is available for people to use to contract the installation of an interim higher speed broadband service until R100 reaches them. In practice this means using either a 4G mobile hub or a satellite service. Some households in the Kirkandrews and Knockbrex areas are using the EE 4G Router or BT 4G Hub and are reporting download speeds of around 20 Mbps and upload speeds of over 10 Mbps. These devices use the 4G mobile phone network and, depending on your location, may require the installation of an external antenna to improve the signal reception.
Update – May 2021
The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband site has been upgraded with new estimates for the delivery of fibre broadband to rural areas. Their original target of the end of 2021 has now slipped to ‘late 2022’
A company called Fibairo is surveying the Borgue area to see if they can provide broadband services using their wireless technology. Fibairo have an office in Castle Douglas and are already providing services to rural locations in the Castle Douglas and Glenkens areas.
Update – September 2021
An OpenReach engineer was seen in the Kirkandrews area in late September. He said that he was surveying the area in preparation for extending the fibre broadband network. He was inspecting the existing fibre lines to look for the ‘joints’ at which other connections can be made. The joints haven’t been checked yet to see if they have capacity. Suitable joints can take up to 36 off-shoots/spurs for 36 properties. The engineer is spending the next 2 weeks surveying the joints in the area.
From Ingleston, the poles with Joints are:
1. Roberton Bridge
2. o/s Roberton by the tennis court
3. o/s Fishercroft
4. o/s Dairy Cottage
5. There is also a pole with a Fibre Joint opposite Meggerland Cottages.
If Joints 1 and 5 have capacity, they will be used to provide Fibre to Whitehill and Kirkandrews.
Update – October 2022
We seem to have slipped down the priority list again and the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband site is now predicting a date of late 2023 for fibre broadband to be connected to the rest of the Borgue area. Here’s the information that is coming up for properties in the Kirkandrews area:
Based on the current engineering schedule your address is in scope to receive its superfast connection in the second half of 2023.