Local MP Simon Hart is demanding action on slow broadband as it is revealed that our area is the seventh worst in the UK for average download speeds.

Figures from the House of Commons library show that the constituency falls into the bottom five per cent of seats in the UK for superfast availability with only half of homes able to connect to superfast.

“Slow broadband speeds are the number one complaint that I hear about after problems with the NHS in Wales,” said Mr. Hart. “These figures show that only six other seats in the UK have slower average download speeds than we do.”

BT Openreach is delivering the Superfast Cymru project which is supposed to enable 96 per cent of households to connect to superfast speeds.

“This project was supposed to have been completed in Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire by the end of 2015, then we were told Spring 2016 and now some communities are being told June 2016,” said Mr. Hart.

“Other areas such as Maidenwells are now being told that the area is not currently in BT Openreach’s plans to be upgraded. It is simply not good enough. BT Openreach has been given taxpayers’ money amounting to £1.7 billion to deliver this project and they are failing.”

Mr. Hart has lent his support to a new report from the British Infrastructure Group of MPs (BIG) that looked into the failure of BT Openreach to deliver superfast broadband across the UK.

The new report, ‘BroadBad’, calls on the regulator Ofcom to take radical action and put an end to the monopoly enjoyed by BT Openreach.

Mr. Hart added: “We are suffering because this BT-run monopoly is clinging to outdated copper technology with no proper long-term plan for the future.

“This is having a very real effect on businesses in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire and we are failing to attract new business as a result. Given all the delays and missed deadlines, I believe that only a formal separation of BT from Openreach, combined with fresh competition and a concerted ambition to deliver, will now create the broadband service that the people and businesses of Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire so rightly demand.”