Scottish Borders Council superfast broadband delivery pledge

A Borders councillor has said work is being done to deliver superfast broadband to homes in the region currently missing out on the service.

Jedburgh became the latest town to receive the provision last week.

Councillor Stewart Bell said by the end of the latest rollout, 94% of homes in the region should have access.

He added that a range of groups were working on ways to deliver superfast services to those not covered by that programme.

There have been concerns in the past that the region was missing out despite major investment in broadband.

Superfast target

Mr Bell said there were technical reasons why some sites would not see their services improve.

"Over very long distances the speeds run down a bit and therefore there are some premises that are very distant from cabinets that won't see a significant improvement in services," he said.

"The target for this superfast scheme which will be fully operational between 2017 and 2018 is to get 94% of premises in the Borders connected.

"The remaining 6% is something that is being considered by Digital Scotland and Community Broadband Scotland in co-operation with local authorities to see if we can come up with customised local solutions."