BT’s October 2022 Progress Update on 10Mbps UK Broadband USO

UK ISP BT has issued the latest biannual October 2022 update on the progress they’ve made in delivering the 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband, which confirms that they’ve so far built a USO connection to over 5,900 premises (up from 4,600), with more than 2,000 further builds in progress (down from 2,300).

The USO first went live in March 2020. The obligation was aimed at those who can’t yet receive a 10Mbps or faster download speed and aren’t planned to get one in the next 12-months. Ofcom states that 83,000 UK premises currently fall into this gap (i.e. those outside of both fixed line, fixed wireless and suitable 4G mobile coverage), or 513,000 premises if you exclude wireless solutions (here), but some homes are still too expensive for even the USO.

Back in 2020 we reported on various examples (here) where people had been hit with quotes for excess costs that ran from tens of thousands of pounds and went all the way up to £1-2m. Since then, some improvements have been made to the USO (here), but there’s no escaping the reality that some properties will not be economically viable to reach via this method.

We should point out that the government are STILL exploring how to reach those who live in “Very Hard to Reach” areas (here) – roughly equating to the final c.0.3% of premises. In the meantime, the USO gap is slowly continuing to shrink, which is thanks to the expansion of rural 4G / 5G coverage and the impact of the government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme (e.g. funding to help build gigabit broadband in rural areas).

The October 2022 USO Report

Overall, by the end of September 2022, BT had built a USO connection to over 5,900 premises, with more than 2,000 further builds in progress. The number of USO requests appears to have fallen since earlier this year, but after checking, a majority of these requests are often found to be ineligible for the obligation (i.e. this is usually because a suitable USO option already exists) – details below.

As for confirmed orders (there were just 10 in September), it’s noted that BT has generally been delivering these within up to 12-18 months (Ofcom allows up to 24 months for total build completion). But the latest report doesn’t say very much and is largely just a broad statistical update on the USO’s progress. Overall, it’s hard not to see the USO as being a bit of a disappointment, which often isn’t able to deliver on its ‘universal’ namesake.