Digital connection has never been more vital. Much of the UK has been living under severe local restrictions for months, and many more areas are joining them. Fast, reliable broadband is now no longer a nice-to-have but a fundamental necessity. Indeed, the pandemic has underscored that communication rights in the 21st century should be built on a universal right to Internet access.
That is why the findings of last week’s National Audit Office report, ‘Improving Broadband’, are so worrying – and why we urgently need an alternative to delivering the UK’s digital infrastructure. The report, which examines the decade-old 'Superfast Broadband Programme' introduced by the Coalition in 2010, highlights real improvements in broadband connectivity and coverage. However, far from meeting the government’s target of having “the best” superfast broadband network in Europe, the UK is lagging behind: it ranks only eighth, with 1.6 million homes and businesses lacking access to superfast speeds. Moreover, there are sharp digital divides in terms of both connection and speed by income and region: more than half of all of the UK’s 650 constituencies have below 5% full-fibre coverage, while just ten constituencies have coverage of greater than 60% and just 47% of those living on a low income use broadband internet at home.
Critically, the report found the UK network is no longer future proof, with efforts to build the next generation of digital infrastructure failing badly: it ranks 27th out of 28 European countries in terms of connection to gigabit-capable broadband (speeds of up to 1,000 megabytes) and only 14% of households have a full-fibre connection. This puts the country 35th out of 37 countries assessed by the OECD for the proportion of fibre connections in its total fixed broadband infrastructure. The future is being built, just not here.
