Final UK Labour Party Manifesto Hints at 300Mbps Broadband for All

The UK Labour Party has today published the final version of their Manifesto for the General Election, which is broadly similar to last week’s leak but includes a few changes. One of those tweaks is an aspiration (not target) to roll-out 300Mbps broadband “across the UK within the next decade” (i.e. by 2027/28).

Readers may recall that the leaked document touted a target to “deliver universal superfast broadband availability by 2022” (30Mbps+) and the information suggested that this would be a legally-binding Universal Service Obligation (USO) rather than a virtual commitment, although the language was a little vague. We’ve already examined this and so won’t repeat ourselves today (see here).

However the final document keeps the above target but removes specific criticism of the existing Government’s 10Mbps USO plan, which makes it unclear whether Labour’s “superfast” pledge reflects a legally-binding USO or merely a non-binding commitment.

The final document also adds a remark about aiming for universal coverage of 300Mbps, which is something that was missing from the leak and that came as a surprise because Corbyn has alluded to it in the past (here).

Final Manifesto Quote

We will deliver universal superfast broadband availability by 2022. Labour will improve mobile internet coverage and expand provision of free public wi-fi in city centres and on public transport. We will improve 4G coverage and invest to ensure all urban areas, as well as major roads and railways, have uninterrupted 5G coverage.

On day one we will instruct the National Infrastructure Commission to report on how to roll out ‘ultrafast’ (300Mbps) across the UK within the next decade.

Crucially the reference to 300Mbps doesn’t read like a clear target and is only reflected as an instruction for the NIC to “report” on the feasibility of such an idea. Last year Corbyn talked about his aspiration to foster a “nationwide” Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP/H) broadband network, which would have been funded by £25bn from a new National Investment Bank (NIB).

The use of 300Mbps, which is stated without any specific reference to FTTP/H technology, would also give Labour some extra wriggle room as by that definition they could include other technologies like BT’s G.fast and Virgin Media’s DOCSIS (Cable) network into the mix. Sadly we don’t get any specific information about funding or costs for the broadband pledges.

Certainly with enough money anything is possible, although the party would need to be careful because if they simply pumped all of the investment towards BT then that would risk damaging the growth of alternative network providers (Ofcom has been trying very hard to foster altnets and competition at infrastructure level via their Strategic Review).

As usual, always take any political pledges from any party with a big pinch of salt. Now we wait for the other parties to put out their Manifestos.

UPDATE 1:48pm

Probably a bit late but I’ve added a basic poll following some requests.