Highland Perthshire residents are likely to wait “a number of years” before superfast broadband is installed in their area despite a government promise for completion last spring.
That was the assessment from Audit Scotland when it published its latest R100 (Reaching 100 per cent) broadband scheme update report last week.
Many in the area could even be without it until as late as 2027.
The findings also reveal that Perth and Kinross currently has the slowest average broadband speed in the central area (made up of 20 local authority areas) at around 45Mb/s.
It trails behind Fife and Angus, with Dundee showing to have the fastest average broadband in the country at over 120Mb/s.
Only five of Scotland’s 32 council areas currently have slower average broadband speeds than Perth and Kinross.
Some 107,000 eligible properties in Scotland are still without superfast broadband despite the SNP’s 2016 Holyrood manifesto promising it would “deliver 100 per cent coverage” to every home and business in Scotland by spring 2021.
Under the Scottish Government’s £600 million R100 project fewer than one in every 400 eligible homes in the north of Scotland under the scheme - which partially covers Highland Perthshire - designed to connect properties without superfast internet have so far been connected.
Audit Scotland warned that connecting the more rural premises would be “hugely challenging” as they were mostly in the hardest to reach locations with difficult terrain.
The awarding of the contracts to deliver improved infrastructure has been hit by multiple delays, with the deal for the north of the country not agreed until December 2020.
There are 59,276 eligible properties in the north section of the country under the R100 programme but by the end of last year just 145 - 0.2 per cent - had been connected.
“The pandemic has shown that a fast and reliable broadband connection is an essential utility,” said Stephen Boyle, auditor general for Scotland.
“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 government and its partners.”
Two local Conservative politicians have slammed the delay in the flagship R100 broadband scheme rollout.
Highland ward councillor John Duff and Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser both expressed concern at the impact this is having on residents and businesses in Highland Perthshire.
Cllr Duff said: “The six-year delay in delivering R100 is yet another failure in a long list of SNP Government failures.
“My constituents in Highland Perthshire live in one of the worst affected areas of Scotland.
“These delays are having a detrimental impact on rural residents in particular, including many local businesses trying to make a living on their ‘superslow’ broadband service, families trying to cope with an inadequate service where adults are working from home and their children need online access to study, and some who have had to resort to very expensive alternative solutions to get the promised superfast internet access they need.”
Mr Fraser added: “It is a damning indictment of this ‘flagship’ scheme to find out that it has been delayed until at least 2027 – six years after it was originally due to be completed.
“Yet again, the people of Scotland have been failed by this SNP Government as they promised the scheme would reach every home and business across the country by 2021, but it has been beset by problems, including a protracted legal dispute.
“Poor broadband, or lack of broadband, is still one of the main issues constituents contact me about and it is particularly bad in Highland Perthshire, where there is a large percentage of rural properties and businesses. These constituents deserve fast, reliable broadband in this day and age.’’
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said “excellent progress” had been made in delivering complex digital infrastructure projects.
“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,” they added.
