A new report has revealed that almost 18,000 households across Stirling have now been upgraded to high speed broadband.
The issue of the rural/urban broadband divide across the region has been a key question among property owners and businesses in Stirling’s rural towns and villages as the pandemic forced many to work from home.
The latest report published by the Scottish Government outlines the progress of its ‘Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband’ programme - launched in 2014 with the aim of providing access to fibre broadband to 85 per cent of Scotland’s properties by the end of 2015 and 95 per cent by 2017.
It reveals that 97.2 per cent of properties in Stirling now have access to fibre-enabled broadband, compared to 59 per cent in 2012.
A total of 17,870 households across Stirling are now connected to the internet fast lane, with the report highlighting that 92 per cent were covered by ‘superfast’ connections, counted as greater than or equal to 24Mbps.
The programme rollout, which has reached areas including Blanefield and Gargunnock in the past year, was praised by the region’s political representatives.
Stirling MSP Evelyn Tweed said: “The pandemic really has shown the importance of digital connectivity in modern life.
“Both for work and leisure, stable, high-speed internet access has been crucial for homes and businesses all over Scotland and I’m very pleased to see partnership working between Stirling Council, the Scottish Government and the private sector has paid off for so many communities in my constituency.”
Those views were echoed by the MP for Stirling, Alyn Smith, who added: “Internet connectivity has energised many of Stirling’s rural communities, who are reaping the dividends of smart government investment.
“The pandemic has led to a rapid re-appraisal of working and commuting habits, and the shift to home working for many industries has given fresh motivation to workers seeking a better work-life balance.
“Stirling stands to gain hugely from these trends, and I look forward to working with local stakeholders to help build on these recent successes.”
However, Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Alexander Stewart claimed the Scottish Government had “completely broken their promise” to deliver total superfast broadband coverage across Stirling by this year.
Mr Stewart added: “Whilst I applaud Openreach’s engineers for such a huge undertaking in such a relatively short time, we have to remember that the SNP promised to ‘ensure that 100 per cent of premises across Scotland have access to super-fast broadband by 2021.’
“Yet work on the network will now run to at least 2023 and nobody in the SNP government has taken full responsibility for this. The continued delays on delivering broadband have been unacceptably slow.
“Superfast and reliable broadband is vital for all parts of Scotland, especially for rural areas such as many across Stirling, given the fact that rural areas of Scotland continually have the slowest speeds in Scotland.”
