ALMOST 9,000 homes and businesses across East Renfrewshire have benefited from a multi-million pound drive to roll out superfast broadband.

A report on the success of the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme shows it reached a total of 8,900 customers in the local area.

Engineers from Openreach laid more than 125 kilometres of cable across East Renfrewshire during the build, connecting communities in the likes of Barrhead and Uplawmoor.

Around 60% of those reached by the DSSB rollout in East Renfrewshire have now upgraded and are enjoying faster fibre broadband, which makes web browsing, working online, gaming and streaming much quicker.

Robert Thorburn, partnership director for Openreach in Scotland, said: “Everyone at Openreach is thrilled to see the transformative effect of better broadband across East Renfrewshire.

“This has been a great partnership, going much further than planned and reaching many thousands of homes which might otherwise have struggled through the pandemic.

“Good connectivity has never been more important and the huge expansion of the fibre network leaves a strong legacy to build on, including the deployment of 4G services in remote areas.

“We’re cracking on with the next stage of the journey and I’d like to say a massive thank-you to all the engineers who have overcome so many challenges – from wildlife and weather to terrain and red tape – to bring us this far.”