INCA Calls on UK Gov to Focus on Full Fibre in New Industrial Strategy

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), which represents many of the UK’s alternative gigabit broadband operators, has today called on the UK government to ensure that their future Industrial Strategy “prioritises digital infrastructure“. The group wants this to be supported by a national campaign to promote full fibre-adoption, among other things.

In case anybody has forgotten, toward the end of last year the government proposed to set out a “modern industrial strategy” – backed up by a “credible, 10-year plan to deliver the certainty and stability businesses need to invest in the high growth sectors that will drive our growth mission“. Sadly the word “broadband” was only mentioned once in their Green Paper, which merely reiterated their “targets to bring gigabit-capable broadband to all of the UK, and standalone 5G to all populated areas, by 2030“.

In response to this, INCA has today published fresh proposals, which form part of the evidence they’ve just submitted to the Business and Trade Committee’s Industrial Strategy Inquiry. The submission highlights the important role that full fibre broadband is playing across the country and stresses the need for “government to not take connectivity for granted“, not least as “adoption rates remain too low“.

To address this, INCA is advocating for a national campaign to promote full-fibre adoption, including financial incentives for businesses transitioning from outdated copper networks. Additionally, INCA is calling for the establishment of a cross-departmental digital infrastructure working group to streamline government policies and reduce rollout barriers, although the Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency’s Barrier Busting Taskforce already does some of this.

Based on the fact that access to broadband impacts many essential services, the association has recommended the working group comprises: DSIT as the lead agency, along with the Department for Health and Social Care, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, His Majesty’s Treasury, Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Education and the Home Office.

Finally, INCA also stressed the importance of a new digital inclusion strategy to help address disparities in broadband access and skills training.

INCA’s CEO, Paddy Paddison, said:

“Full-fibre broadband is not just a technological upgrade—it is an economic necessity. The government, which has been extremely vocal about kickstarting the economy, must now deliver on it and taking decisive action to prioritise digital infrastructure and support widespread adoption will represent a major step forward in this regard.”

The move appears to be partly intended to help ensure that INCA’s voice is heard as much as possible ahead of Ofcom’s forthcoming Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR), with the group “urging” the government to “reaffirm its commitment to infrastructure competition and ensure Ofcom actively promotes it.” We suspect the association will not want those it represents to be left vulnerable if the regulator ends up softening regulation on Openreach or allowing the incumbent to introduce further pricing discounts on FTTP etc.

Equally, INCA is perhaps being mindful that Openreach’s withdrawal of older copper-based lines and services may present the incumbent with an opportunity to bulk migrated customers over to their own full fibre network, which could make life harder for altnets. But equally, it may be difficult to avoid this reality.