Civil servants are to conduct an ‘open market review’ to determine where connectivity funding is best deployed in Scotland to close broadband coverage gaps.

The Scottish Government has published details of a request for information from major telecoms providers – to check on planned superfast, ultrafast and gigabit capable broadband infrastructure.

The aim is to ensure officials can understand where additional focus may be required to support national aims to offer 100% broadband coverage across the country.

Only premises marked as having no gigabit network infrastructure – and none likely to be developed within 3 years – will be eligible for funding from Project Gigabit – the joint UK and Scottish Government subsidy scheme.

Broadband suppliers have until October 28th to submit their plans for existing and future deployments, in order to determine which ‘interventions’ the Scottish Government may make.

The document restates the ambition set out in the Digital Strategy for Scotland, published jointly with local government last November, which commits that no one should be left behind as services move online.

The Scottish Government said in the new document, released today: “We want Scotland to be a fully digitally inclusive nation in which our digital and data infrastructure is recognised as critical national infrastructure and the benefits of technology are available to everyone.”

It also calls for digital and data infrastructure to be recognised as critical national infrastructure, echoing the UK Government’s 2024 decision to give data centres the same status as water and energy networks, with added protection against cyber attacks and outages.

The review reflects a broader shift in how the Scottish Government defines infrastructure. Its planning now effectively treats digital platforms such as ScotAccount and ScotPayments, online public services and data systems as infrastructure in the same way as roads, rail and energy networks.

The document states: “It extends beyond the fibre, masts and small cells needed to meet our connectivity needs, to encompass digital platforms, online public services and data architecture.”

Despite the ambition, and the change in policy focus, Scotland’s broadband connectivity still lags other parts of the UK.

Ofcom’s most recent figures for Scotland, published last November, found that 71% of homes could get full-fibre broadband and 81% could access a gigabit-capable connection, the lowest full-fibre coverage of any of the four UK nations.

However, that was an increase of nine percentage points from the previous year and represents an additional 250,000 premises having access to full fibre compared to July 2024.

Around 16,000 premises still do not have a decent broadband service, with rural and island communities the worst affected.