The Department is reliant on suppliers to deliver gigabit coverage to 80% of UK premises without subsidy. The Department has so far been overly reliant on the contributions of commercial suppliers in improving gigabit coverage.
45 meg persecond upgrade#
The Department told us this was largely as a result of Virgin Media O2’s upgrade of its cable network but it was unable to inform us of exactly how much of this increase was due to that upgrade. This represented a rapid increase on the figure of 40% coverage in May 2021 reported by Ofcom. In October 2021, for example, it reported that there was 57% coverage national gigabit coverage. The Department is unable to fully explain the breakdown of the progress it is reporting in achieving its targets. We previously recommended that the Department needed to clearly set out its key milestones for delivering its target and publish yearly updates on its progress. This was then revised again in November 2020, following our last evidence session, to a minimum of 85% gigabit capable coverage by 2025, with the Department also seeking to get as close to 100% as possible within this timeframe. In 2019, it revised this to nationwide gigabit-capable broadband by 2025. The Department’s target was initially for nationwide full-fibre network coverage by 2033. The Department’s reporting still lacks the consistency and detail needed to enable Parliament and the public to tell what progress it is making in rolling out gigabit-capable broadband across the UK. The government has allocated £1.2 billion to rolling out gigabit by 2025, with a further £3.8 billion reserved for future years.ġ. In addition, it is providing funding through the gigabit voucher scheme as immediate help for people experiencing slow broadband speeds in rural areas. The Department is working with these operators to provide subsidies to build gigabit infrastructure in less commercially viable areas.
These providers include large firms like Openreach and Virgin Media O2, and smaller providers, known as alternative networks or “alt-nets”. The Department expects that commercial operators will supply broadband infrastructure where profitable, and that this will provide up to 80% of the UK’s coverage.
Despite having revised its target, the Department also plans to accelerate rollout to get as close to 100% nationwide coverage as is possible in that time. In 2020 it revised this again, to at least 85% of UK premises having access to gigabit-broadband by 2025. In 2019, the Department revised its target of achieving nationwide full-fibre coverage by 2033 to achieving nationwide gigabit-capable coverage by 2025.
45 meg persecond full#
Gigabit-capable broadband, such as full fibre, can provide speeds of over 1,000Mbps, fast enough to download a High-Definition (HD) film in seconds. Although superfast broadband (download speed of at least 30 Mbps) is fast enough for most household use today, global internet traffic is growing by around 40% each year. Central to this is its target of rolling out gigabit-capable infrastructure capable of download speeds of at least 1000 megabits per second (Mbps) to at least 85% of UK premises by 2025. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (the Department) is responsible for delivering the government’s policies on increasing economic growth and productivity through improved digital connectivity.
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