People will say ‘No thanks’ to full-fibre broadband

We often read about the ‘digital divide’ in the UK, which assumes there’s a privileged elite on incredibly fast speeds, while the underclass struggles on dial-up. But two news stories in Issue 622 suggest the truth is much less dramatic.

On page 8 you say that Virgin Media O2 has hit its target of delivering gigabit broadband to 15.5 million homes. On page 9 you report Ofcom saying that 76 per cent of people don’t take up full-fibre broadband when it’s offered to them. If I interpret that correctly, isn’t Virgin’s huge (and presumably massively expensive) gigabit project going to be ignored by millions of people? A large majority of households will just say, ‘No thanks,

I’ll stick with 50Mbps, thank you very much’.

I have a feeling the Government and broadband providers are in for a nasty shock when take-up of full-fibre turns out to be far less enthusiastic than they think it’ll be. In desperation they might try a Covid-style marketing campaign to encourage people to upgrade, though that would be a colossal waste of money.

Roger Mallory

I agree with Katherine Newsome (Star Letter, Issue 621), when she says she simply doesn’t need 300Mbps broadband. I live with my partner, and our speed is an average of 35Mbps. We regularly download Sky Q catch-up programmes and use our ipads and laptops, all at the same time without problems. We could have 500Mbps where we live (spending more each month, of course), but why would we bother? Not everyone needs the fast speeds that the Government thinks we do.

Ken Board