Government Responsibility for UK Broadband and Mobile Returns to DCMS

After a few days of conflicting messaging, the Government in Westminster did yesterday confirm that responsibility for all things broadband and mobile related – this includes programmes covered by the Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency and related aspects – has been shifted back to a re-named Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). But now the ‘D’ stands for Digital (I guess.. DDCMS?).

Regular readers might recall that at the start of this week the new UK Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, quickly revealed (here) his intention to abolish the Government’s central Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), which since February 2023 had also overseen broadband and mobile connectivity (telecoms). Prior to that BDUK was managed under DCMS.

Shortly after that it was revealed that DSIT’s functions would be split between a renamed Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST) and DCMS, although there were plenty of conflicting reports over whether telecoms could go to DBIST or back to DCMS.

“The functions of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) will be redistributed to align with the Government’s core economic and social agenda embedded as vital engines of growth exactly where they can have the most direct impact. This change recognises that technology and innovation are not separate sectors of our economy – they are the foundation of all future industry, culture, and public service delivery,” said a government statement.

The Government yesterday finally made clear that UK telecoms would return to DCMS, albeit now renamed to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DDCMS). But naturally everybody will still reference this department as DCMS, rather than the slightly more annoying DDCMS, because.. screw it, why not 🙂 .

Government Statement

The newly expanded Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport spans the culture and creativity of this great nation. The new structure brings together telecoms, media and the Government’s Digital Service (GDS). It will reflect the inseparable nature of culture and technology as drivers of our country and the modern economy.

Reflecting that traditional boundaries across the print, broadcasting and social media landscape have dissolved, it will provide coherent and strategic oversight, across telecoms, media and online safety to maintain the UK’s world-leading strengths in those sectors. This department will also continue to drive the modernisation of government and public services via the GDS.

The strengthened DCMS will also bring together levers on online safety, mis- and disinformation as we tackle ever more sophisticated challenges to keep people safe online. This will sit alongside its existing responsibilities on youth policy, providing an unprecedented focus on support.

At present there are no indications whatsoever that the new leadership have any plans to change course on their existing broadband and mobile programmes / policies, thus the target for extending gigabit broadband coverage to reach c.99% of UK premises by 2032 under the £5bn Project Gigabit scheme still stands and so does the goal of ensuring that “all populated areas” can access a Standalone 5G (5GSA / 5G+) based mobile broadband network by 2030 (NOT to be confused with geographic coverage) etc.

Lest we forget that this is still the same fundamental government, with the same manifesto commitments, thus we’re not presently expecting any major adjustments to current telecoms infrastructure strategy. Not that this has stopped everybody from Mobile UK to the ISPA calling on the new leadership to support telecoms networks, be more flexible on planning reform and so forth – as always happens when there’s a change of political leadership at the top. Some relate legislative and markets reviews are ongoing and so changes are coming on this front, just nothing that could be consider different from what might have happened under the previous leader.

ISPreview suspect that if there are going to be any unexpected changes for the sector under the new leadership then it may be more focused on the pro-consumer angle. The recent move to cut the 5% VAT rate from electricity bills does, perhaps, hint that the new Prime Minister might at least be more willing to consider doing something similar for Social Tariffs on broadband and mobile.

We’re also keen to see whether he may be more amenable to banning mid-contract price hikes in the sector, which over the past few years have become a huge consumer bugbear (here and here). Time will tell.