Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 2
2
The Department has so far been overly reliant on the contributions of commercial suppliers in...
Recommendation
The Department has so far been overly reliant on the contributions of commercial suppliers in improving gigabit coverage. The Department is reliant on suppliers to deliver gigabit coverage to 80% of UK premises without subsidy. Between May and October 2021, national gigabit coverage increased from 40% to 57%. The Department acknowledges that Virgin Media O2’s upgrade of its cable network contributed significantly to the increase in gigabit availability during this period, although it is unable to provide a figure for this. The Virgin Media O2 upgrade provides gigabit availability, but this is not achieved through full fibre technology, which is more future proof but requires new infrastructure. While companies such as Virgin Media O2 have set out their intention to further future proof their networks over time, once the current upgrade of existing cables has been completed there will remain a gap in coverage if the Department does not put in place further contracts to build the gigabit infrastructure. The Department told us it has extended some of the contracts it had in place for the delivery of superfast broadband to now enable gigabit-capable connections. In some areas it is also supplying gigabit vouchers to communities to pay for gigabit-capable connections in areas where it is not commercially viable to do so. However, it has not yet signed any new gigabit infrastructure contracts of its own. 6 Delivering gigabit-capable broadband Recommendation: In line with its Treasury Minute response, the Department should set out what progress it has made towards its coverage target of 85% by
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
2025. This should be broken down by how much coverage is being achieved by: • individual commercial suppliers, such as Openreach, Virgin Media O2 and smaller suppliers know as alternative networks or “alt-nets” etc., and the extent to which it is through full fibre technology; and • the gigabit voucher scheme. 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: July 2022 2.2 The UK has one of the fastest builds in Europe, becoming a leader in terms of gigabit connectivity by 2025. The department has achieved this by setting clear, ambitious targets to galvanise operators and investors, together with a regulatory environment that stimulates competition and investment in the market. 2.3 There are now over 80 different companies rolling out gigabit broadband. The UK is on track to achieve coverage to 85% of the UK’s 31 million premises by 2025. 2.4 As of March 2022, gigabit capable networks are available to 66% of UK premises, including full fibre networks to 32% of UK premises, according to ThinkBroadband.com, up from just 6% at the beginning of 2019. • Virgin Media O2 has upgraded and extended its network, offering gigabit speeds to over 50% of the UK. Industry sources suggest at least 10% of these are served by full fibre. The company has announced an upgrade path to convert the remainder to full fibre, and is seeking joint venture partners to extend to a further 7 million premises; • Openreach - and KCom in Kingston upon Hull - have built new full fibre networks to 21% of UK premises; and • a further 11% of UK premises are able to receive gigabit services over an alternative network provider’s full fibre networks. 2.5 BDUK delivered gigabit coverage to over 600,000 premises by April 2021. BDUK has pivoted the Superfast programme, which now targets the remaining 3% of UK premises without superfast speeds, to focus on gigabit capable networks. 2.6 BDUK will report further details on the coverage achieved by its different interventions in its performance report in July 2022, and then in the annual report and accounts from 2023. 2.7 The department will address this recommendation in its letter to the Committee.