Ministers have abandoned efforts to deliver superfast broadband to about a million homes, claiming that most of those in remote locations would not want it.
Sajid Javid, the business secretary, said he hoped to “spread the benefits of superfast broadband” — defined as 25 megabits per second (Mbps) — to the “final 5 per cent” of homes a year ago. In his time as culture secretary, Mr Javid commissioned trials on how to reach those who do not benefit from the 95 per cent coverage to be completed by the end of next year.
That effort appears to have been dropped, however, on the grounds that it is unaffordable and that most of the rural homes to be denied superfast broadband will not use it in any case.
Instead, about a million homes will have to settle for 10Mbps, the minimum internet companies are obliged to provide under the “universal service obligation” (USO) — to put broadband on the same footing as other essential utilities, such as electricity and water — introduced by David Cameron last year.
Speaking about the benefits of broadband at 25Mbps, Mr Javid said that they were clear, from “increasing productivity and economic growth to transforming family entertainment at home”.
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However, a consultation document for the USO argues that it is unlikely that most people in remote areas will want speeds of 25Mbps “even if that option is made available to them”. It adds: “So we do not believe that an additional broadband roll-out programme at this time is proportionate or would represent value for money.”
The decision was condemned by a leading campaigner for better rural broadband, who accused ministers of settling for “rural digital apartheid”. Graham Long, chairman of Broadband for Rural Devon and Somerset, said: “Businesses are moving out of rural areas here because they cannot keep their website — their shop window — up to date.
“It will be even worse if they only have 10Mbps in 2020, because the need for better bandwidth will have grown by then, now that we have cloud computing and other shared applications.”
In some areas, such as east Yorkshire, Devon, Cumbria and the Cotswolds, more than one fifth of premises could be stuck with the legal minimum of 10Mbps.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport maintains that a broadband speed of 10Mbps “enables full participation in our digital society”. It allows “watching video on demand, listening to internet radio or streamed music, using social media, accessing government services, shopping online and working from home”, the consultation states.
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A spokesman said that about £250 million, which will be clawed back from BT, would pay to push the proportion of the country with superfast coverage a little higher than 95 per cent.
And he defended the decision, saying: “We can’t realistically deliver a further programme that would represent value for money.”
EE, now part of BT, said last week that it planned to extend 4G services to 95 per cent of the country’s landmass, which would connect all but the most remote residents to mobile broadband services.
The final 5 per cent has proved trickier given the long distances between customers and local exchanges. Yet the government’s decision to introduce a 10Mbps universal service obligation means that the telecoms industry has to address the issue in the most remote areas, which BT has said would cost £1 billion to connect. It has instead started to explore satellite and 4G as a means to beam superfast broadband to those users.
How good is Britain’s coverage?
It is both the best of times and the worst of times for telecoms customers (Nic Fildes writes).
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Average broadband speeds have risen at a fair clip to almost 30Mbps and the UK now enjoys the best combination of speeds and prices of any major European country.
It is a similar story in mobile. Britain was once a laggard in 4G, the data-centric mobile network technology, but has shot ahead.
Yet very few customers seem happy. Those in rural areas are infuriated that they are still getting broadband speeds broadly equivalent to dial-up internet while those in suburban areas opine that they do not get anything like the speeds they pay for.
While the UK is doing well in the superfast race, other countries have streaked ahead in the “ultrafast” generation by ripping out old copper cables and putting in fibre. The upgrade is only going as fast as BT, owner of the national network Openreach, will go.
That has led to calls for it to be broken up, but be careful what you wish for. The Australians broke up their former telecoms monopoly amid plans to build the world’s best broadband network. But it cost taxpayers billions of dollars and the ambition has been scaled back.
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Yet solving the “final 5 per cent” problem is critical for the government to ease concerns about Britain being stuck in the broadband slow lane even as the debate about “super”, “ultra” and presumably “hyper” fast broadband rages.
