Gov’s £1bn Helps 493,600 UK Premises Get Gigabit Broadband

The UK Government has today announced that nearly half a million premises have been connected to gigabit-capable broadband since summer 2018, which stems from £1bn of public investment. But in order to push take-up they’re now launching a new Gigabit Take-Up Advisory Group (GigaTAG).

At present almost 26% of UK homes and businesses can now access a “gigabit” (1000Mbps+ or 1Gbps+) service via an ISP which, alongside commercial investment, means more than 7.5 million premises have been covered (up from just 1.4 million two years ago). We should point out that “full fibre” (FTTP) networks only cover about 15% of premises (here) and lately much of the gigabit increase has come from Virgin Media’s DOCSIS3.1 upgrade (here).

As for the Government, they’ve so far focused on targeted support to help facilitate investment by commercial operators and to connect public sector sites. In total they’ve committed around £1bn across various schemes including £400m via the Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund (DIIF), £279m through the Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) scheme and £200m under the Rural Gigabit Connectivity (RGC) programme.

Both the LFFN and RGC programmes have also included gigabit voucher schemes, which provide grants to help homes and businesses get a faster broadband connection installed. At present the RGC is focused on rural communities and provides funding of up to £3,500 for small rural businesses, or up to £1,500 for homes, which in some areas can also be doubled in value by extra investment from local authorities.

So far, a total of 44,792 vouchers, worth more than £90 million, have been issued to help subsidise the cost of building such networks and 29,142 of those have resulted in a live connection (some of the related builds are on-going and take time to complete). The remaining RGC voucher scheme is due to finish at the end of March 2021, while some of the other aforementioned schemes will conclude by the end of 2021.

On top of that at least £200m from Building Digital UK’s (DCMS) existing Superfast Broadband Programme has also been transitioned to specify gigabit-capable (mostly FTTP) connections for all remaining procurements / change requests, which has been on-going for awhile now. Crucially, this accounts for the lion’s share of that half a million figure (464,458 premises).

Matt Warman, UK Digital Infrastructure Minister, said:

“It’s fantastic to see so many people getting access to gigabit speed broadband. This is thanks to our investment alongside the sterling work of industry.

Today I urge people in rural communities in the digital slow lane to apply for the immediate financial help available so they can seize the benefits of better connectivity – from making work easier to catching up with family and friends.

I am also launching a new drive with business and consumer champions to make more people aware of just how beneficial better, faster broadband can be.”

People in rural communities who want to benefit from the rural gigabit vouchers (£70m is still available) can do so here – https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk, although some areas may also be able to help pilot BDUK’s new consumer led approach to vouchers (here).

The government notes that only 30% of premises in areas with access to gigabit-broadband have actually adopted the service and they’re keen to see that improve. As a result, they’ve established the new Gigabit Take-Up Advisory Group (GigaTAG), which will “lead a strategic review into boosting take-up as gigabit connections among consumers and businesses become more widely available.”

Apparently GigaTAG will be led by paid consumer magazine Which?, as well as business groups including the FSB and CBI, with membership including Ofcom and other “industry representatives” (none are named). We’ll certainly be interested to see if they can come up with any new ideas, beyond those that are already being used or planned for the near future (e.g. migration improvements and price discounts).

Rocio Concha, Director of Advocacy at Which?, said:

“It’s really important that people across the UK, including those who are vulnerable or in hard to reach locations, have a quality broadband connection that meets their needs not just for entertainment and to stay in touch with loved ones, but also to be able to work, shop and bank.

By bringing together industry, the regulator, government as well as groups representing both consumers and businesses, this new advisory group will be able to provide recommendations on the best way to ensure everyone can take advantage of faster, more reliable internet connections as they are rolled out.”

A number of factors can impact take-up, such as the higher prices for gigabit-capable services, as well as customers being locked into long contracts with their existing ISP (they can’t upgrade immediately) and a lack of general awareness (locals don’t always know that the faster service exists) or interest in the new connectivity (if you have a decent ADSL2+ speed and only basic needs then you might feel less inclined to upgrade).

The fear of switching to a different ISP may also obstruct some services and so can long contract terms with existing packages. One other way that operators, particularly Virgin Media and Openreach (BT), could help is by making it easier for sites like ISPreview.co.uk to access their network coverage data so that we can build our own multi-network coverage checkers. On this point an agreed industry standard would be most welcome.

Otherwise it’s worth noting that next year will see the Government’s new £5bn investment programme begin (summary), which holds an ambition to extend gigabit connectivity to every UK home by the end of 2025 (although it’ll probably take a little longer than that to actually achieve).