NEARLY half of homes in west Carmarthen and south Pembrokeshire are still getting broadband speeds slower than 10Mb/s, new figures reveal.
Statistics from the House of Commons library show that 74% of households in the constituency have the capability to access Superfast – which is classified as 30 Mb/s and above.
However only 20% of connections are receiving superfast speeds.
Local MP Simon Hart fears that this shows that people are not making the most of the technology that is available to them.
He said: “The fact that nearly three-quarters of houses have access to Superfast, but only a fifth are getting them suggests to me that people are not taking up the Superfast offer.
“Superfast is not like 4G on your mobile phone, it doesn’t happen automatically, you have to sign up for it and switch contracts.”
But he points out that there could be other reasons too.
He continued: “I do wonder if this is because superfast packages are too expensive or possibly that superfast connections are unreliable and customers are not getting the speeds they have been promised.
“I officially live in an area that can get superfast but because of problems with my landline I am unable to access it and so there is no point in switching to the more expensive superfast package, I think that quite a few rural properties probably fall into this trap which would explain some of the low take up.”
South Pembrokeshire and west Carmarthen comes in the bottom 10% of constituencies in the whole of the UK in terms of the number of hosueholds getting less than 2Mb/s.
“We are still quite a way off 97% of households getting access to superfast which is what Openreach has promised,” added Mr Hart.
“I would encourage people to make sure they are accessing faster speeds if they are available and complaining if they are supposed to be getting them but it’s a reality.”
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