Perth and Kinross councillors have slammed delays with the Reaching 100 per cent (R100) programme as many Perth and Kinross properties still struggle to access decent broadband.
The comments were made at a committee meeting on November 16 where an update was given on plans to improve mobile coverage across Perth and Kinross.
Councillors were told Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), national and local governments are working together to improve 4G and 5G connectivity to as many people as possible with work scheduled to take place over the next 12-18 months.
The report showed Perth and Kinross superfast broadband connectivity reaches 87.9 per cent - rather than 100 per cent - of premises.
Conservative Highland Perthshire councillor John Duff said he lived in an area "unable to access decent broadband speeds".
He told the November 16 meeting of Perth and Kinross Council's Environment, Infrastructure and Economic Development Committee the delay with the Scottish Government's R100 scheme was having a "significant impact on rural businesses".
The Conservative group leader said: "The Scottish Government’s R100 programme is several years late and still has far too many properties - mainly in rural areas such as mine - unable to access decent broadband speeds and it doesn’t look like this will be rectified any time soon. This is having a significant impact on rural businesses who are having to rely on expensive, inadequate alternatives for an internet connection."
SNP councillor Jack Welch said poor mobile coverage was affecting the ability to use smart metres.
He said: "In a number of communities in Strathmore we don't even have 3G accessibility which impacts on functionality of things such as smart metres.
"While this is great laying the road map, there are actually a lot of properties still being left behind at the moment."
Smart Perth and Kinross team leader Graham Pinfield said they had identified partial and total mobile not-spots.
He said: "The UK Government and industry are partners in a £1 billion investment so a lot of the applications we have in at the moment are to deal with the partial not-spots and then we'll be dealing with the total not-spots.
"A partial not-spot is where we have only one mobile operator operating in the area and a total not-spot is where we don't have any so it's a matter of prioritising.
"It will be coming. We'll see a lot of activity over the next 12-18 months where this money will be spent to improve the networks in that area."
Conservative Strathearn councillor Noah Khogali urged the SNP administration to play a "really bullish role in communicating to their SNP colleagues in Holyrood that their continued failure of rural households and connectivity is simply not acceptable".
Depute Provost Parrott quipped: "I'm impressing on my party colleagues the need for demolishing our mountains which stand in the way of so much connectivity but we'll see how far I get with that."
Conservative councillor Angus Forbes told the committee he had to travel 30 miles from the holiday cottage he was renting in Moray to get a strong enough signal to attend the meeting.
He said: "I was hoping to join remotely from a holiday cottage on the Moray coast but because the Wi-Fi is so limited - it's nothing better than dial-up speed - I have driven 30 miles along the coast to the first car park I could find where I could get a 4G signal. So it appears to me that this flexible approach to allow more development of mobile phone technology across Perth and Kinross is indeed filling in the gaps we can't deal with through the failure of the R100 scheme so I'm delighted to see this."
