UK Liberal Democrats Pledge 30Mbps+ for All by 2022 and 2Gbps+ FTTP

Yesterday it was the Labour Party (here) and today it’s the turn of the Liberal Democrats to publish their manifesto for the 2017 General Election, which aims to “ensure that every property in the UK” is provided with an unlimited 30Mbps (6Mbps upload) service by 2022 (plus 2Gbps FTTP?).

The headline commitment of 30Mbps appears to almost mirror Labour’s pledge (here and here), except the LibDems have managed to go one further by including a specific mention of both upload speeds and unlimited usage allowances. Recent estimates from both the BSG and Ofcom (here and here) have indicated that such a roll-out might cost up to £1.4bn – £2bn to deliver.

However it’s worth remembering that the Broadband Delivery UK programme already expects similar fixed line superfast service speeds to reach around 97% of premises by 2020. On top of that the manifesto doesn’t specifically say whether their 30Mbps pledge is a legally-binding USO (neither did Labour’s), although they do appear to be hinting at an investment of £2bn and that’s about right for a USO.

6.9 Sustainable rural communities

A thriving rural community needs local services and community facilities such as schools, public transport, local shops, cultural venues and pubs. It needs enough homes, affordable for local families, to ensure those services are viable. Liberal Democrats understand the changes needed to support a living, working countryside. We will:

● Ensure that every property in the UK is provided, by 2022, with a superfast broadband connection with a download speed of 30Mbps, an upload speed of 6Mbps, and an unlimited usage cap.

● Invest £2 billion in innovative solutions to ensure the provision of highspeed broadband across the rural UK, working with local authorities and providing grants to help areas replicate the success of existing communityled projects.

In addition, the party has also listed a number of pledges for supporting future UK technology and business needs, which included the following oddly worded commitment.

The 2Gbps Fibre Pledge

Invest to ensure that broadband connections and services to be provided before 2020 have a speed of 2Gbps or more, with fibre to the premises (FTTP) as standard and unlimited usage by 2020 across the whole of the UK. SMEs should be prioritised in the roll-out of hyperfast broadband.

The language used above is a little difficult to fathom. On the one hand they appear to want 30Mbps for every property by 2022, which is viable in terms of network coverage (albeit not uptake as that’s a complex matter of consumer choice / competition) and they’ve even correctly costed it. On the other hand they expect that everybody should be able to get 2Gbps FTTP “before” 2020? We’re not sure what to make of that.

Perhaps we’ve read it incorrectly but there is no possible way that 2Gbps+ FTTP connections could be made available “across the whole of the UK” before 2020 (we’re only at about 2% today). Perhaps in 10-15 years and with a few tens of billions worth of investment behind the roll-out, but not within 2-3 years.

Separately the Liberal Democrats have also pledged to “roll back state surveillance powers” (Investigatory Powers Act) by “ending the indiscriminate bulk collection of communications data, bulk hacking, and the collection of internet connection records,” which is something that a lot of ISPs, civil rights groups and ordinary internet users will welcome.

In keeping with the above they’ve proposed to introduce a new Digital Bill of Rights that “protects people’s powers over their own information, supports individuals over large corporations, and preserves the neutrality of the internet.”

Political manifestos rarely include enough information for a proper examination (e.g. costings, timescale, technical details) and once again that’s the case here too. At this point it probably goes without saying that you should always take any political pledges, from any party, with a big pinch of salt.