MPs have clashed with civil servants and telecom bosses over the delivery of better broadband to rural areas.

A Public Accounts Committee hearing examining the government's progress on delivering superfast rural broadband was held on Wednesday (28 January).

The session quizzed BT and civil servants over the rollout cost and explored whether the government had done enough to promote greater competition for its rollout programme.

A full transcript of the meeting is available.

Despite £1.7bn of public money, committee chair Margaret Hodge said many rural residents and businesses were still not able to access superfast broadband.

A recent survey by the Federation of Small Businesses found that only 16% of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in rural areas had access to superfast broadband.

Half of SMEs were dissatisfied with the overall quality, and only 28% are satisfied with their upload speed, according to the survey.

Ms Hodge said: "That is an incredibly depressing and abysmal picture."

She asked: "What will you do about it?

Broadband Delivery UK is spending £790m on its superfast (rural) broadband programme, which aims to improve superfast broadband provision to premises across the UK.

In response to questioning, BDUK rural broadband lead Andrew Field said: "One of our key priorities is to ensure that small businesses in rural areas get access to superfast broadband."

He added: "The target that we have been set is to maximise the coverage as fast as we can, using the funding that we have got available."

The Public Accounts Committee published reports on the rural broadband programme in September 2013 and April 2014.

These reports raised concerns over lack of published information on BT's plans for superfast broadband coverage, the availability and transparency of cost data.

It also highlighted a lack of competition secured throughout the programme.

Those two issues were highlighted again during the hearing.

Ms Hodge said: It is completely incomprehensible to me, and wrong, that there should not be absolute transparency over the costs, so that we can all see whether or not there is value."