The news that Dumfries and Galloway is performing “below par” when it comes to broadband speeds has been described as “unsurprising” by South of Scotland MSP Colin Smyth.

The local MSP has called on BT Openreach and the UK and Scottish Government’s to “up their game” when it comes to the roll-out of superfast broadband or risk the local economy falling further behind.

A report published today (27 June) by consumer group Which? Shows that Dumfries and Galloway falls well short of the average broadband speeds in both the UK and Scotland. Dumfries and Galloway finished as the 36^th worst place in the UK for broadband speed, and the 9^th worst in Scotland. On average Dumfries and Galloway is almost a 1/3 of the speed of the country’s best region, Tamworth.

Commenting on the report, Colin Smyth said:

“While progress has been made in recent years, the news that Dumfries and Galloway is performing below par when it comes to broadband speeds is unsurprising. It is an issue that I am inundated with complaints about and no wonder. It’s alright for the UK and Scottish Government and BT Openreach to say that more and more people in the region can access so-called superfast broadband, but frankly for many people it’s far from superfast compared to other parts of the country.

It is clear that the speeds that can be achieved in our region are inferior to many other parts of the country and many areas in the region still don’t have any access to superfast broadband. It’s not just some of our remote rural villages but large parts of our main towns don’t have access due to utter failure of BT Openreach and that is just not good enough. Unless BT Openreach, the Scottish and UK Government’s up their game the digital divide between our region and many other parts of Scotland and the UK will get wider. That will make it harder for Dumfries and Galloway to compete and risks our local economy falling further behind.”

To see the full report -;

https://infogram.com/local_authorities_broadband_speed_table_1st_q