ISP TalkTalk Calls on UK Gov to Help Boost Full Fibre Take-up UPDATE

Low-cost broadband ISP TalkTalk has called on the government to be more proactive in encouraging the take-up of new full fibre and other gigabit speed capable networks. One of their proposals calls for a national information and awareness campaign to help highlight the benefits of such connections.

At present the industry is still primarily focused upon rolling out new networks and, to be fair, a lot of operators are putting a fair bit of effort into promoting their availability in the areas where they’re digging. But such efforts don’t always reach everybody and a fair few consumers are still uncertain about whether to upgrade, which in some cases may also require customers to switch ISP (many are apprehensive about that).

In response, TalkTalk commissioned Frontier Economics to study the issue, which highlighted that even in countries with strong coverage of full fibre networks (e.g. Spain and Portugal), some 20% of those who could upgrade still haven’t made the leap. The UK’s prior rollout of so-called “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) is given as another example, where it’s predicted that 99% of premises will be covered by 2030, but “only” 75% will have migrated.

According to the FT‘s (paywall) summary of this report, which at the time of writing has yet to be published, network operators need to win around a 40% market share in the locations where they operate for their business model to be viable (via both retail and wholesale outlets). However, in the past we’ve tended to be told that the minimum figure is usually around 20% to 30%, but it will vary a lot depending upon the area (dense urban vs rural) and type of build (demand-led or general deployment). The use of existing cable ducts and poles (e.g. PIA) can also add a bit more flexibility.

The report ends by calling on the UK government to run an information and awareness campaign about the benefits of full fibre broadband, as well as highlighting the need to introduce a full fibre employee subsidy scheme and to create a right to the technology for social housing tenants (this is often more a matter of securing wayleaves / access for related deployments).

Tristia Harrison, TalkTalk’s CEO, said:

“The whole dialogue needs to move to consumer take-up … The near-term economics and health of the sector are under threat. Unless there’s take-up, there isn’t the revenue that underpins network operators’ build and that’s bad news for … the economy and for the country.”

The new report is, to some significant extent, merely re-treading ground that was already covered by last year’s report (here) from the Gigabit Take-Up Advisory Group (GigaTAG). The GigaTAG report called for various changes to be introduced, such as clearer labelling of products (i.e. to help highlight the advantages of full fibre) and more advertising campaigns, but so far we’ve seen precious little movement on its recommendations. We recommend reading our summary of that for a more comprehensive overview of the situation.

Nevertheless, any new advertising campaign would face challenges, since it would need to be ISP neutral and would also have to grapple with today’s highly complex and confusing market – featuring an abundance of choice and varying different levels of network availability between locations. Not to mention that network availability changes dramatically each week as new infrastructure gets deployed.

However, it’s important to mention that older copper networks are slowly being withdrawn, which means that, eventually, consumers will be migrated to a gigabit-capable network no matter what approach is taken on the promotion side today. But it will still take a decade or more for Openreach to fully withdraw their copper lines, although smaller players like WightFibre have already completed this step (here) and KCOM will be next (here).

As for those who are apprehensive about switching to a different network or ISP, it’s worth pointing out that Ofcom’s new One Touch Switch (OTS) process is due to go live from April 2023, which is designed to make it as easy and simple to switch between physically different network platforms as it is to move between providers on Openreach’s platform today.

UPDATE 9:21am

TalkTalk has now released a more detailed summary of the report, which warns that up to 33% of consumers will not take up full fibre connectivity unless changes are made. The ISP is recommending some immediate actions which the Government, Ofcom and industry can all take to “ensure consumers are well informed and incentivised to switch.” We’ve listed these below.

Government:

• Set and track Take Up target alongside roll-out target to create shared ambition and momentum
• New ‘Gigabit UK’ cross-government taskforce to coordinate consumer migration and monitor progress on adoption

Ofcom:

• Support better consumer understanding of FTTP e.g. promoting benefits of new product and establish clarity on terminology
• Set a framework for copper switch-off to aid industry discussions and support customer awareness at the appropriate time
• Reset regulatory approach to put the consumer at the heart of FTTP policy

Industry:

• An ‘FTTP first’ mindset
• Clearer and consistent marketing of FTTP to build consumer awareness
• Closer co-ordination with civil society on migration of customers.

The full list of recommendations from Frontier Economics are:

Government:

• Create a right for FTTP for tenants
• Require property listings to show if a property is FTTP enabled
• Introduce an FTTP employee benefit scheme
• Run an information campaign on FTTP benefits
• Co-ordinate FTTP migration competitions

Ofcom

• Set and publicise expected copper switch off date
• Publish data on consumers’ FTTP broadband experience
• Update marketing guidelines to focus on reliability
• Require social tariffs to be provided via FTTP where possible

Industry

• Openreach to commit to higher level of service for FTTP fault repair than FTTC or ADSL fault repair
• Industry to set up dedicated support channels for elderly customers and other vulnerable groups.