Culture Secretary Confirms 2025 UK Gigabit Broadband for All Aim
The Culture Secretary, Nicky Morgan MP, has confirmed that the Government is still focused upon delivering “gigabit-capable” broadband to all by the end of 2025. The target appeared to be cast into doubt earlier this week after a briefing on the Queen’s Speech (here) adopted the vague wording “as soon as possible.“
In a statement given yesterday to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee Morgan said: “I still think 2025 is absolutely.. it is very ambitious and we can’t deny that. I do think that actually we’re really ramping things up and it’s not just about money … I still use the phrase 2025 and so does the Prime Minister. I am very clear in the department, it is 2025 that we are aiming for.”
So there you have it, Boris Johnson (PM) might have decided to water down (here) his original focus on “full fibre” to adopt the broader “gigabit-capable” language (i.e. this adds in Hybrid Fibre Coax from Virgin Media and 5G or Fixed Wireless networks etc.), but at least the 2025 date hasn’t been changed. Of course actually achieving that target is still very difficult.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Yeah right …
Well, you can’t blame them for trying to be optimistic. We should all be grateful that it is garnering such attention from the government, frankly.
Well said
At least it is high on the agenda now.
Well they would more likely to hit this ambitious target if when Openreach run fibre cabling past your house to supply another small village/area with gigabit connections, they give those premises passed the possibility to connect…?
How about forcing ALL new builds to be supplied with a fibre connection rather than copper?
OR is fibre by default for a little while now. Most developers are using kick backs from alt nets anyway. Nearly every new site near here is ONFL/gtc.
The openreach rollout in Newcastle (gosforth and whitley bay) appears to be on top of virgin media…..which is a pretty dumb move. I just don’t get the logic. Rollout to compete rather than rollout to areas that get pants speeds and mop up.
@Ian It makes sense because they don’t get as much extra revenue upselling existing customers onto faster tiers. At present, the biggest return for openreach shareholders is from investing to retain or win back customers who have the choice of an alternative network. It’s survival instinct: if they don’t fight back in competitive areas, they will slip into a terminal decline.
Well, if the snp get their way that will reduce the number of properties the UK need to worry about.
(X) Doubt
Wait for it to be watered down even more soon, to provide “Gigabit Capable” wired connections to urban areas and the rest can be provided by “Gigabit Capable” 5G wireless.
“gigabit-capable” great so it will end up like the Australian National Broadband Network (nbn) which is a huge pile of steaming sh…