MORE than 550 homes and business in West Linton can now have access to high-speed fibre broadband thanks to the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme.

About 24,700 households have already benefitted from the £428 million scheme in the Borders, with 45 towns and villages getting access to the service, including Peebles, Galashiels and Selkirk.

And more local coverage is expected to follow as engineers from Openreach – the local network business which is part of BT Group – continue work on the ground.

West Linton residents and business owners David and Estelle Weipers say their flower business, lintonblooms.co.uk, has benefitted from the new service.

David told us: “With the new fibre service I have seen a significant improvement with the amount of devices that we are able to have connected in the house at the same time. Specifically, it allows Estelle and me to be able to work from home together.”

Estelle added: “I take orders over email and via the website, therefore having fibre broadband is essential for the running of my business. The flowers are ordered from Holland so I need to have access to a fast connection to ensure that the orders are processed effectively.”

Fibre broadband offers fast connections at speeds of up to 80mbps and there are many different suppliers to choose from.

Sara Budge, programme director for Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband, said: “It’s fantastic news that the programme has been able to benefit David and Estelle and many others residents and businesses in and around West Linton.”

BT is investing £126 million in the Digital Scotland rollout.

Robert Thorburn, the company’s Fibre Broadband Director, said: “Hundreds of West Linton residents can now connect to their best ever broadband speeds when they sign up with a service provider, and we’d encourage local people to check out their options.

“It’s a highly competitive market, so people could potentially be surfing at much higher speeds at a similar cost to their current service. Once you’ve made the switch to superfast, like David and Estelle, we’re confident you’ll never look back.”