FIFE’S state-funded rollout of broadband has helped to provide high-speed fibre connections to 99.3 per cent of the Kingdom’s homes – but parts of Dunfermline are being left behind.

The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) scheme has connected a total of 61,203 households to fibre broadband using more than 400 miles of fibre optic cable.

But, while 99.7 per cent of households have access to a fibre broadband connection, 0.3 per cent do not – roughly 5,000 households across the whole of the Kingdom, predominantly in rural areas in North-East Fife, north of Dunfermline and between Markinch and Kennoway.

Conservative West Fife and villages councillor Mino Manekshaw, whose ward is home to many rural communities, has asked for more information on how these households will be reached.

“A solution must be found for those deemed difficult to reach or not commercially viable, scattered in rural areas,” he said.

DSSB was established by the Scottish Government to provide high-speed fibre internet infrastructure to homes that would have otherwise been bypassed by private internet firms continuing to rely on copper phone lines.

The Government estimates that almost three in 10 households would be without access to fibre without the scheme.

The mass broadband rollout is also far from over. Ministers have committed £600 million to the Reaching 100 per cent programme, known as R100, which will use mobile and satellite connections to provide superfast web access to 100 per cent of the population by the end of this year.

Gordon Mole, head of business and employability at Fife Council, said the rollout of high-speed internet for more of Fife would do more to support people working from home and those running businesses remotely.

“The programme has enabled premises to access higher broadband speeds and will continue through the Reaching 100 per cent programme,” he said.

Altany Craik, Labour councillor and economy convener, said the purpose of the R100 scheme was to reach those who had been left out of the DSSB programme. He agreed to instruct officers to provide councillors with a briefing note outlining how the scheme works.

“I think Cllr Manekshaw raises fair points – that’s the whole point of the R100 scheme,” he added.

Councillors were briefed on the outcome of the DSSB programme last week. The council had a financial stake in it, having agreed to contribute £2.8 million alongside the Scottish Government’s £30.6m, sourced from Openreach (then owned by BT).

Of those households, 57,815 have access to 'superfast' connections with speeds of at least 24 megabits per second (Mbps). Rural premises were connected to the high-speed network via newly-dug direct fibre connections, known as fibre to the premises, instead of being connected via a street cabinet.