THE Scottish Borders remains a broadband backwater despite millions of pounds of public money being downloaded into the area, according to the latest research.

A major survey carried out by Which? has ranked the region as the tenth slowest out all 358 local authority areas in the UK.

Only some of the most rural parts of Scotland and England, including Orkney, Shetland and the Highlands, fared worse when it comes to streaming services like BBC iPlayer and Netflix or carrying out online banking.

And politicians are now demanding that the region is brought up to speed quickly before it falls further behind.

Conservative MP John Lamont is among those wanting action. He told us: "Customers and businesses need to see some action fast.

"Poor connectivity is undoubtedly holding our region back and it’s a massive inconvenience for customers.

"For too long, residents in the Borders have had to put up with below par broadband.

"Given that we are so close to the central belt, having one of the worst average speeds in the country is truly appalling.

“People will look at this table and wonder why we have slower speeds than neighbouring Northumberland or Dumfries & Galloway or really remote areas like the Western Isles."

Analysis carried out by leading consumer champion Which? of over 275,000 customer speed tests found that the Borders had one of the worst average speeds at 9.3Mbps.

Millions have been pumped into rolling out superfast broadband in the Borders.

Communities around Ayton, Coldstream, Jedburgh, Stichill and Broughton were the latest to be hooked up at the end of last year.

But many households are still without fast enough speeds for the basic internet services.

Labour South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth, who is the shadow cabinet spokesman for Infrastructure, Connectivity and Transport, believes the Borders is on the wrong side of a growing divide.

He said: "Scotland faces a digital divide with rural areas such as the Borders unable to access decent broadband.

"As this report exposes, the SNP’s roll out of fibre broadband has failed to deliver, with many people in our region receiving super-slow broadband rather than super-fast.

"Poor broadband speeds have a massive impact on local businesses who are being put at a competitive disadvantage and it is hugely frustrating for households who often can’t access services online because speeds are too slow and unpredictable.

"It’s time we had a clear strategy from both the UK and Scottish Government to properly connect every household in the Scottish Borders to superfast broadband or we will continue to be left behind by the failure of both Governments”.

The Which? study found that six of the bottom ten UK local authority areas for broadband speeds were in Scotland.

Which? managing director Alex Neill, said: "It’s incredibly frustrating that so many Scots are still struggling to get a good broadband connection when so many of us rely heavily on the internet to carry out important everyday tasks.

"The Scottish Government must now press ahead with plans to provide 100 percent of the homes in Scotland with a decent broadband connection and make sure that no one is at a disadvantage because of where they live.”

Scottish Borders Council pumped £8.4 million of public cash into the BT openreach superfast broadband rollout in the area.

And a study at the end of last year found there were 'major problems with the quality of the coverage'.

A spokesman for the local authority said: "Whilst that investment has helped contribute to the 93.7 per cent coverage achieved to date, it is unfortunately the case that many households and businesses in rural areas of the Scottish Borders are still unable to access genuine superfast broadband and the council continues to press the relevant organisations and governments to ensure that these premises receive this vital service as quickly as possible.”

The Scottish Government is investing £600 million to extend superfast broadband access to all parts of the country by the end of 2021.

Local MSP Paul Wheelhouse, who is the Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands, is one of the key speakers at a conference planned for April to discuss how Scotland can achieve superfast blanket coverage.