A NATIONWIDE division of telecommunications company BT has unveiled its plans for the largest ever ‘hard to reach’ full fibre broadband build in Scotland

And the multimillion pound move will benefit tens of thousands of homes and business across Ayrshire, as the Scottish Government welcomed the rural rollout.

Openreach last week outlined its plans to make its ultra-reliable and gigabit-capable full fibre broadband available to thousands of ‘harder to reach’ communities in North Ayrshire.

The new locations are among 60 small towns and villages across Scotland to be upgraded by Openreach, without contributions from taxpayers.

Ardrossan, Saltcoats, Stevenston, Kilwinning, West Kilbride, Seamill and Dalry are all included in the lengthy list.

The telecom company are hopeful that with businesses soon to have access to some of the fastest broadband speeds available in Europe, it will help boost post-coronavirus lockdown recovery.

Work is expected to get underway in many of the towns and villages within the next 12 to 18 months.

However, due to the scale of the project, some places will see work continue as far as 2024.

The build is part of an enormous £12billion investment by Openreach throughout the UK.

Robert Thornburn, Openreach’s partnership director for Scotland, said: “We’ve already upgraded thousands of homes and businesses across Scotland to full fibre.

“As well as keeping the existing network running throughout the Covid-19 crisis, our engineers have continued building the new infrastructure to make such that as lockdown restrictions are eased, out network is there to support families, businesses and the economic recovery.

“Our full fibre build is already advanced in Kilmarnock, and underway in Ayr and Stanecastle.

“Now we’re extending in to these ‘harder to reach’ communities across Ayrshire.

“Full fibre is more reliable and more resilient – meaning fewer faults and more predictable, consistent speeds.