NFU Says Just 4 Percent of UK Farmers Can Get Superfast Broadband

A new report from the National Farmers Union, which states that Farming underwrites the food and drink industry and is worth £103m to the UK economy each year, has joined the chorus of groups criticising the Government over fears that rural areas will not benefit from “superfast broadband“.

Once again the report (Farm Broadband & Mobile Networks) reflects frustrations with the proposed 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO), which many have interpreted to mean that nobody in the final 5% of the United Kingdom (mostly rural areas) will receive “superfast” speeds of greater than 24Mbps. But as we’ve already explored, the reality is more complicated and often not as bad as reported (here).

Never the less there are genuine concerns because the Government hasn’t been able to develop a plan to ensure universal (100%) coverage of fixed line superfast broadband connectivity, which is something that other EU member states are still aiming to achieve (examples); even if precious few of those will actually hit their target by 2020.

The NFU has now joined the chorus of criticism and warned that “at best … farmers within this last 5% could be offered far lower speeds of 10 megabits per second by 2020,” but as we’ve already explained (here) many in the final 5% should still get much faster speeds than 10Mbps (some will even get above 24Mbps).

Guy Smith, NFU Vice President, said:

“If our industry is to meet any of the ambitions of the long awaited Government 25-year Food and Farming Plan, it will be essential for barriers to growth to be removed. Poor access to broadband and mobile networks is one such significant barrier and the current situation is neither sustainable nor acceptable. The Government is asking farmers to run their businesses in conditions that put them at an immediate disadvantage.

We have heard of farmers waiting 15 hours to download a Countryside Stewardship guidance booklet, farmers can’t comply with increasingly online only regulation and aren’t able to contact their customers. Farmers can’t harness the brilliant range of agri-technology which relies on a reliable internet connection. To increase productivity you need superfast broadband, to get out of the farm office and into the field.

Well over half of our members have diversified their farm businesses with the aim of supporting the wider rural economy, but they simply won’t be able to support this wider economy if they can’t offer high-speed broadband. This is tantamount to failure to provide the infrastructure that our industry desperately needs to flourish and compete in increasingly globalised markets.”

Admittedly many of the recent newspaper articles and related reports risk misinterpreting how USO’s work and indeed no firm policy even exists yet as the matter is still under early consultation. On the other hand political pressure often drives change and so, rightly or wrongly, all of this criticism may yet nudge the Government into delivering an even more effective strategy.

The 10Mbps USO is a good thing and indeed it’s stronger than almost every other country with a similar broadband policy, which is something that often gets overlooked, but at the same time we had always hoped that the Government might accompany it with a general commitment to ensure universal coverage of “superfast” connectivity (we’re excluding Satellite, which is still not good enough).

However the high cost of delivering in that final 5% (in reality it will probably be more like the final 2-3% once BDUK has completed) appears to have caused the Government’s programme to pause. After all, we do still have a rather large pile of debt to pay off.