Rural communities in far north 'let down again' by slow rollout of R100 broadband programme
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The Highlands is being left behind the rest of the country in the delivery of the Scottish Government’s rollout of the R100 broadband programme with just 0.2 per cent of households connected.
The keynote programme to deliver high-speed internet to 100 per cent of households and businesses was originally supposed to have been completed before last May’s Scottish Parliamentary elections, but is only projected to be finished by 2027 – six years late.
Signing of the contracts for the north of Scotland was delayed by one year after one bidder sued over the process before OpenReach was awarded the deal.
Three lots were drawn up – the South Lot, mostly Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders; the Central Lot, comprising the central belt and parts of southern Stirlingshire, Perthshire and all of Fife.
The North Lot comprises the rest of Scotland including the Highlands and all the islands and involves extensive work over the most difficult terrain to deliver what Audit Scotland calls an “essential utility”.
But there is a huge gulf in delivery highlighted by the speed of work in the South and Central Lots compared to properties in the north of the country.
The £133 million South Lot is surging ahead with 14 per cent, or 2991 connections out of 20,740 eligible premises, while the £83 million Central Lot has reached seven per cent, 2171 of its 32,216 eligible premises.
By comparison, the £384 million North Lot with 59,276 premises entitled to get superfast broadband through the R100 programme has just 0.2 per cent or 145 premises connected.
Stephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland, said: "The pandemic has shown that a fast and reliable broadband connection is an essential utility. But there is still work to do to connect or upgrade around 100,000 homes and businesses as part of the Scottish Government's plans.
"Infrastructure work, particularly in the Highlands and Islands, will continue for a number of years. These are properties in the hardest to reach locations with difficult terrain, making it a huge challenge for the government and its partners."
The figures triggered outrage from MPs and MSPs across the north with Liberal Democrat MP Jamie Stone lashing out at the glacial pace for superfast broadband, saying it leaves the north with Stone Age internet speeds.
"My constituents are fed up with being lumbered with Stone Age broadband connections,” the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP said. "The SNP promised to deliver access to high-speed broadband to every household and business in Scotland by 2021. That promise was junked at the first opportunity.
"A reliable internet connection is an essential part of modern life. It has a major part to play in everything from education to running a business. Both of our governments need to stop treating the far north as an afterthought."
Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant said: “I have lost count of the number of times our rural communities have been let down here.
“Arguably, the best course of action for the government rollout would have been to start with the rural areas first but our centralising SNP government chose to leave them to the end. Now, years later, many rural areas still struggle to get anywhere near acceptable speeds.”
And Conservative Highlands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston said: “Audit Scotland who, back in 2018, were already expressing concern about the SNP’s performance in rolling out the R100 broadband programme, could not be clearer about how badly communities in my region have been served.
“It’s telling that the report identifies the Highlands and Islands as being left behind despite all the promises.
“The SNP made a manifesto commitment to connect all of us by 2021 and now it doesn’t look as though they will even manage that by their revised deadline of 2027.
“This amounts to a failure by the Scottish Government in their duty of care to people living in the more remote areas. We cannot possibly hope to address the threat of depopulation in rural Scotland unless this vital infrastructure, which is commonplace elsewhere, is put in place.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Excellent progress has been made in delivering complex digital infrastructure projects, including the highly successful Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme. The Scottish Government has connected nearly a million premises to faster broadband through public sector investment worth an estimated £311 million.
“Despite telecoms legislation being reserved, the Scottish Government remain on track to begin deploying 16 subsea cables – which will deliver resilient, gigabit-capable connectivity to 15 islands – later this year. The projected completion date and cost of the R100 North contract reflects the scale of the engineering challenge of delivering full-fibre broadband to Scotland’s hardest-to-reach communities.
“We welcome Audit Scotland’s recognition of significant improvements in broadband coverage and speed, and their acknowledgment that R100 contracts are building in some of the most difficult terrain in the UK. As recognised by Audit Scotland, the higher costs in delivering R100 are partly due to exceeding the original superfast commitment by delivering an increase in the number of gigabit-capable fibre-to-the-premises connections.”
