10 Recommendations to Help Improve Broadband in Wales

The Welsh Parliament‘s Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee (CCEIC) has today publish a new report into the state of broadband internet access across Wales, which makes 10 recommendations for how the UK and Welsh Government’s could improve connectivity and fill the remaining gaps.

Back in 2014 some 55% of residential premises could access “superfast broadband” at speeds of 30Mbps or higher, compared to 75% across the UK. By 2021, this figure had increased to 94% against a UK average of 96%, but take-up in Wales is still only around 63%.

The latest data from Ofcom also reveals that 46% of Wales has access to a “gigabit-capable” connection, which falls to 32% when only looking at Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology. Furthermore, Ofcom estimates that around 15,000 premises cannot even get a “decent broadband” service of at least 10Mbps download and 1Mbps upload from fixed or fixed wireless networks in Wales (i.e. the Universal Service Obligation).

Suffice to say, there’s a lot of work left to do in order to meet Westminster’s £5bn Project Gigabit ambition of ensuring that 85%+ of UK premises can access such connection by the end of 2025, before possibly reaching “nationwide” coverage (realistically c.99%) by the end of 2030 (here and here).

Commercial operators are expected to do the vast majority of this work, while Project Gigabit is largely focused upon the final 20% of predominantly rural and semi-rural areas. According to a related Public Review (PR) consultation for Wales, some 327,174 premises might need state aid help if they’re to gain access to such speeds (here).

The new CCEIC report – ‘Digital connectivity – broadband‘ (PDF) – has recognised many of the problems in rural areas and made a series of recommendations. It also scolds the Welsh Government for stopping their top-up funding for the rural gigabit voucher scheme in March (here), which offered grants to help people in poorly served areas access gigabit-capable connectivity.

However, the Welsh Government said: “We don’t have the money to do [the top-up scheme], because the UK Government is making us spend money in areas where we shouldn’t be spending money. So, it was a judgment that we had to step away from this, because we simply didn’t have the funding, and by doing it, we were letting the UK Government off the hook.”

LLyr Gruffydd MS, Chair of the Committee, said:

“It is extremely disappointing to hear of many people in Wales still unable to access superfast broadband. Especially since the pandemic, more and more of our lives are lived online, and it’s simply unfair that many in rural areas are expected to put-up with sub-par, unreliable broadband. Everyone in Wales, not just those in urban areas, should be able to access a high-speed internet connection – this shouldn’t be a luxury.

Many of the issues we examined are non-devolved so we urge the Welsh Government to take on board our recommendations and present the solutions in this report to the UK Government – or the failures we see in this report will be repeated.

With living costs rising sharply, the UK Government must urgently look at raising the Universal Service Obligation cap and improving the take-up of broadband services offering a ‘social tariff’. If things don’t change, we will undoubtedly see more people excluded from modern life.”

The report states that the UK Government will set out proposals for addressing connectivity challenges to the hardest-to-reach premises later in 2022, which we suspect will reflect the launch of their Project Gigabit procurement for Wales. However, if this is anything like their existing procurements, then it’s possible that we may not see a final contract being awarded under this until 2024 or later.

On top of that the committee believes it is “prudent to pause” Openreach’s migration of the old analogue phone network, which is being converted to a digital (IP / VoIP) based solution as part of the long-term plan to retire the country’s legacy of old copper lines in favour of full fibre.

One major ISP, BT, has already put a temporary pause on their own ‘Digital Voice‘ migration due to concerns over the impact of power cuts and other things (here), but other Openreach based ISPs have not. Ofcom are known to be taking a closer look at this (here), but there are no easy solutions to some of the inherent challenges with this change.

The full list of recommendations can be found below, although most of them are quite vague.

The 10 Recommendations

Recommendation 1. The UK Government must develop public initiatives that ensure that the 1% who cannot currently access decent broadband can do so. The Welsh Government should engage with the UK Government on the development of new public initiatives to ensure they meet the particular needs of Wales. The Welsh Government should report back on progress within the next 6 months.

Recommendation 2. The Welsh Government has stated its long-term ambition to see around 30% of Welsh workers working from home or near home. The Welsh Government should clarify whether it is satisfied that the current level of access to broadband in Wales is compatible with its ambition.

Recommendation 3. The Welsh Government should continue to fund projects that improve connectivity where improving levels of digital connectivity contribute to wider policy goals, such as its net-zero ambition.

Recommendation 4. The Welsh Government should seek reassurances from Ofcom that concerns are being addressed about the migration to Voice over Internet Protocol. The Welsh Government should report back to this Committee on progress within the next 6 months.

Recommendation 5. The Welsh Government should hold discussions with the UK Government, Ofcom, and providers to explore opportunities to increase sign-up to the social tariff. The Welsh Government should report back to this Committee on progress within the next 6 months.

Recommendation 6. The Welsh Government should undertake a piece of work to consider the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on its Digital Strategy. It should report back on the conclusions within the next 6 months.

Recommendation 7. The Welsh Government and should explain how its Digital Strategy will remove barriers for groups who are disproportionately affected by a lack of digital connectivity.

Recommendation 8. The Welsh Government should hold discussions with the UK Government about raising the amounts available for individuals and businesses in rural Wales under the Gigabit Voucher Scheme.

Recommendation 9. The Welsh Government should hold discussions with the UK Government about the level of the cap on installations under the Universal Service Obligation with the aim of ensuring that it reflects significant increases in costs and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

Recommendation 10. The Welsh Government should set out is position on legislating to require full fibre connectivity for all new-build housing developments. The Welsh Government should also explore how it can ensure that developers are not able to restrict homeowners from being able to access other providers.

UPDATE 1:50pm

We’ve had a comment come in from Broadway Partners.

Michael Armitage, Founder at Broadway Broadband, said:

“It’s encouraging to see the Welsh Parliament raising the issue of sub-par broadband affecting people across rural Wales. The report claiming people could be left ‘excluded from modern life’ is a stark warning that it is time to ramp up on tackling the digital disadvantage affecting people in rural Wales. Data released from Ofcom this month found that across Wales, 10,626 homes were below the minimum standard for broadband speed.

Given the ambitious targets for rural connectivity laid out in the ‘Levelling Up’ agenda, the main priority should now be to continue providing the population in rural Wales with high-quality, full fibre broadband that is both as reliable and affordable as the packages available in urban areas.”