Broadband rollout still failing rural Scotland
The sluggish progress of broadband rollout is harming rural and island communities, says Ariane Burgess, the Scottish Greens’ spokesperson for rural affairs.
Figures released by Ofcom show stark differences between broadband speeds in urban constituencies when compared to island and rural communities.
In Edinburgh, just 1% of residents still have broadband download speeds of less than 10 Megabits per second but in Orkney the figure is 17%, in Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch it’s 14%, in Na h-Eileanan it is 13% and across Highland Council and Argyll & Bute as a whole it is 9%.
Commenting on the figures, Ms Burgess said:
“The entire approach to broadband rollout has been flawed from the start. Private companies have cherry-picked the easiest properties to connect and now we’re seeing our digital divide opening into a yawning chasm.
“In rural and island communities, local economies and businesses are being stifled by the lack of even basic provision while those in urban areas have benefitted from full fibre and Gigabit capable provision.
“At a time when more people are working from home, stable and reliable internet connections can help to grow and sustain our rural and island populations.
“We need to learn from this experience. One way to do this is by ensuring rural areas are included in national infrastructure projects right from the start.“If we are able to get things right for rural communities from the beginning then those systems will also work in more urban areas where the private sector is in a position to do more of the heavy lifting.
“A lot of people in the rural communities I represent are right to feel short-changed by a public investment of £1.3bn that has so far failed to connect thousands of them to even the most basic broadband provision.”