Deadline is set for full-fibre broadband connection
Faster broadband needed now
ALL HOMES across the UK should have access to full-fibre broadband coverage by the year 2033, according to the Government’s digital strategy.
Proposals set out by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport recommend legislation to guarantee new homes are fitted with full-fibre broadband. Fullfibre connections – faster, more reliable and cheaper to run compared with traditional copperbased networks – stand at only four per cent in the UK, lagging behind other European countries, including Spain at 71 per cent and Portugal at 89 per cent.
The Government aims to give the majority of the UK access to 5G mobile connections and to connect 15 million premises to full-fibre broadband by 2025. It also said an increase in spectrum should help boost innovative 5G services. Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright said: “We want everyone in the UK to benefit from world-class connectivity no matter where they live, work or travel.
“This radical new blueprint for the future of telecommunications in this country will increase competition and investment in full-fibre broadband, create more commercial opportunities and make it easier and cheaper to roll out infrastructure for 5G.
“The FTIR’s (Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review) analysis indicates that, without change, full-fibre broadband networks will at best only ever reach three quarters of the country, and it would take more than 20 years to do so. It also indicates that 5G offers the potential for an expansion of the telecoms market, with opportunities for existing players and new entrants.”
The Government hopes that changes to regulation and an industry-led switchover from copper to full-fibre co-ordinated with Ofcom will help drive private investment and minimise the cost.
Hard-to-reach rural areas would be prioritised for fixed broadband and 5G mobile connections with £200m within the existing superfast broadband programme. CityFibre, one of the UK’s alternative fibre networks, welcomed the move but said consumers should not have to foot the bill.
THE GOVERNMENT’S proposal to guarantee every home in the land access to high-speed broadband by 2033 is not so much a case of jam tomorrow but of jam in 15 years’ time.
We recognise, of course, that running cables to the most isolated parts of the country – the uplands of North Yorkshire are a case in point – is costly and, in some cases, impractical. But the importance of a robust, fast connection to the internet in these areas cannot be overstated.
Broadband is no longer a luxury, provided for purposes of entertainment; it is a business lifeline, and, as ever more facilities gravitate from the main street to the virtual superhighway, a crucial portal to public services.
“How fast is the broadband?” is one of the first questions many of us now ask of a location, and if the answer is “not very”, rural communities will struggle to attract and retain the wealth generators that are their lifeblood.
The need for speed has never been more urgent.