Mike Crockart MP calls for rural fibre broadband

The latest rollout of fibre optic broadband in the Edinburgh area has been described as good news for urban residents but not for rural communities.

Mike Crockart, Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, pointed out several locations will miss out on faster broadband speeds because it is not commercially viable to deploy the technology in rural areas, reports the Scotsman.

Although BT is set to upgrade seven Edinburgh exchanges in its latest round of infrastructure enhancements, the telecoms giant will not be carrying out work in communities such as Dalmeny, Kirkliston and Ratho.

"It just isn't acceptable for some to be able to download a song in around two seconds, while people just a few miles down the road have speeds of between only 1Mbps and 2Mbps," Mr Crockart remarked.

Around 125,000 properties in and around Edinburgh will be covered by BT's fibre broadband network when the latest upgrades are completed.

Across Scotland as a whole, more than 277,000 homes and businesses are in line to benefit from the infrastructure improvement programme.