‘GIVE PENSIONERS CHEAPER BROADBAND’
New plans – are you eligible?
Howessential is access to the internet? The question is key to the debate on offering cheaper broadband to low-income families. The Local Government Association (LGA) says that internet access is so important to modern life that people on benefits should receive financial help to get it.
In a report delivered to the Government ahead of the Autumn Statement, it said that internet access “has the potential to reduce social isolation and enable people to be cared for more easily outside of hospitals”. This could be of particular help to pensioners, one in seven of whom live in poverty says the charity Age UK.
The Government agrees that access to the web is as important as other utilities, such as water, gas and electricity. Last year it announced the Universal Service Obligation (USO), which would give everyone the legal right to demand speeds of 10Mbps. David Cameron said at the time that broadband shouldn’t be a “luxury”.
But the LGA, which represents more than 370 councils in England and Wales, wants the Government to go further. It’s calling for the USO to include a “social tariff” that guarantees 10Mbps to people who “face undue hardship” in paying the normal market rate.
It points to BT Basic ( www. snipca.com/22313), available to people receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance, Pensions Credit, Employment and Support Allowance (income related) or Universal Credit, as a good example of subsidised broadband. For £9.95 a month subscribers get speeds of up to 16Gbps and 5GB online storage in BT Cloud. The LGA wants all internet service providers (ISPS) to offer similar packages, but didn’t specify whether these companies, or the Government, should pay for them.
The LGA makes a strong case. Mark Hawthorne, chairman of its People and Places Board, said that “good digital connectivity is a vital element of everyday life”.
But not everyone agrees that fast broadband is a necessity. Critics of this approach refer to the number of adults in the UK who don’t use the internet – around 10 per cent (5.3 million), according to the Office of National Statistics’ 2016 survey ( www.snipca. com/22314). If access to the web is so crucial, they argue, why do millions of people happily live without it?
Some claim it’s a matter of cost. Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said that many older people feel “priced out of the digital world”. But John O’connell, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, says that the LGA’S plans aren’t the answer: “There are many structural, long-term reasons as to why some areas
are deprived and they will not be solved by taxpayersubsidised broadband”.
He added: “If poorer households receive a discounted rate, that is only going to lead to higher prices for other families”.
Another pressing question is whether 10Mbps is fast enough for the USO’S minimum speed. Culture Minister Matt Hancock warned that it’s too slow for “tomorrow’s needs”, while Neil Fraser from broadband company Viasat said that it will further the divide between “a nation of broadband haves and have nots”.
One group yet to comment are the ISPS themselves, but they are surely already working on strategies to reduce how much subsidised broadband will cost them. They’ll reveal their hand when the Government decides what to do next. Only then will we begin to understand how close we are to fast broadband for the rich, poor, and everyone in between.
If poorer households receive a discount, that will lead to higher prices for other families