Too Many New Build UK Homes Still Lack Superfast Broadband

Over the years we’ve reported on many situations where large developments of new build homes have been constructed without including good provision for “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) from day one. Now a new analysis of recent UK builds during 2017 suggests that the problem isn’t yet fixed.

In theory the situation should be improving, not least due to the changes that occurred between 2016 and 2017 to address the problem. Firstly, most of the major home builders (e.g. Home Builders Federation) have now entered into partnerships with network operators (e.g. BT and Virgin Media) in order to better facilitate the rollout of fibre optic (FTTP/H) and hybrid fibre (FTTC / HFC DOCSIS) based broadband technologies.

On top of that a new directive from the EU (details), which has also been adopted into UK law, is supposed to mean that all newly constructed buildings (i.e. those that gained permission after the 31st December 2016) are “equipped with a high-speed-ready in-building physical infrastructure, up to the network termination points.” The UK government has also been telling councils to ensure that they factor this into local planning approvals.

However we should point out including support for such services is only half the battle and the developer still needs to find a network operator to actually make use of the infrastructure they’ve built, which doesn’t always happen. Now a new estimate by Thinkbroadband, which examined new build postcodes, appears to suggest that around 1 in 4 to 1 in 5 of new premises are still appearing without provision for superfast broadband.

The good news is that the results show a strong rise in the proportion of developments making use of “full fibre” (FTTH/P) technology (i.e. national UK coverage is only around 3-4% but in new builds it’s more like 35%). Overall the results aren’t terrible but clearly we’re still a long way from seeing 90-100% support for “superfast“.

NOTE 1: The Ultrafast percentage above will predominantly reflect coverage by FTTP/H, HFC DOCSIS (Cable) and possibly some G.fast based networks; mostly delivered via Openreach (BT) and Virgin Media. Meanwhile Hyperoptic, GTC / IFNL and a few other altnets will also have an impact.

NOTE 2: The focus on postcode level data means that smaller individual developments (usually personal projects) or property conversions aren’t likely to be factored above, although they don’t tend to attract the same requirements anyway.

NOTE 3: The data also does not include those postcodes where TBB have not determined the number of premises present or what broadband options are available, which it’s estimated could add another 40,000 to the UK total for 2017.

We should also point out that the Government has claimed 217,350 new homes were built in England alone during the 2016/17 financial year, which appears to be at odds with TBBs data but then they do have several exclusions to consider and we don’t know the precise workings of the official statistics.

Lest we also forget that new build home developments often take several years to complete after being granted planning permission, which suggests that a lot of permissions will have been granted before the new rules and guidance actually came into force. In other words we may be playing catch-up in some areas for a little while longer.

One problem here is that so long as this issue (let’s call it a negative weight against on-going coverage progress) goes unresolved then it risks casting the government’s aspiration for ensuring that 98% of the United Kingdom can access a superfast broadband connection by around 2020 into doubt. Perhaps now might be the time for a firmer hand.