London Mayor Seeks Increased Funding for UK Broadband and 5G Mobile

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has warned that the city and other parts of the United Kingdom might be at risk of “grinding to a halt” unless the Government puts more investment towards faster broadband, 5G mobile, transport and other major infrastructure requirements.

Last month the Mayor unveiled a new strategy for improving digital connectivity in the City, which was frustratingly light on detail and didn’t sound radically different from what previous Mayors had already attempted (here). Suffice to say that we’ve been more than a little bit disappointed by past Mayors and had hoped for something more concrete.

Obviously one way to improve matters would be to encourage additional investment into the city’s broadband infrastructure, some of which might already be destined to flow that way as part of the £600m or so that has already been targeted at fostering “full fibre” networks (here). At present the details of that are still being decided, although a new voucher scheme will be part of it (here).

In keeping with that Khan has called on Lord Adonis, Chair of the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), to share a bit more money around.

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, said:

“Increasing investment in new infrastructure is essential to supporting new growth and jobs in the decades ahead, particularly as Britain leaves the European Union.

I will continue to put the case to Government that good quality, modern infrastructure, including new roads, railways and state-of-the-art broadband and mobile connectivity is crucial if this country is to remain a global economic powerhouse.

London grinding to a halt is not in the nation’s interests, and nor is it in the interests of London that the north of England’s transport network continues to be woefully inadequate.

We cannot afford for new infrastructure investment in any one region to be seen as a zero-sum game – if Britain’s economy is to succeed we need to see increased investment across the country.

I will continue to provide any technical or political support I can to other mayors and local authorities across the UK in order to develop infrastructure plans in their areas.”

Unfortunately the Mayor doesn’t specify how much extra money he thinks is needed or exactly where he’d like to spend it, which leads us to suspect that this might be more about political appearance than constructive progress. However he’s right to be fighting for more investment and we hope that some will be forthcoming.

Most of London (96%) is already quite well covered by “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) capable networks, with Openreach’s (BT) 40-80Mbps FTTC technology and Virgin Media’s 350Mbps DOCSIS based cable network being the most common forms of connectivity. Not to mention that both operators and some other ISPs, such as Hyperoptic, have also deployed FTTP/H in a fair few parts.

Nevertheless there are still some pretty big pockets left to fill, while even smaller unserved areas in a big city can equate to a large population of people; just ask many of those living around Rotherhithe (Southwark) or the central city area where “fibre” coverage is far from universal. Problems with exchange only lines, risk to transport disruption and high costs make some of the require upgrades extremely difficult.

On top of that London is a major city and some would argue that it should perhaps be looking more towards a Gigabit friendly “full fibre” (FTTP/H/B) future than allowing itself to become reliant on older networks, although that won’t help to fix all of the current slowspots.