Recommendation 5

he Department is yet again failing to prioritise consumers in rural areas. The Department says that it intends to take an ‘outside-in’ approach to the roll-out of gigabit capable broadband, focussing on those areas that currently do not have access to superfast so that they do not remain left behind. But the most difficult- Improving Broadband 7 to-reach premises are not neatly grouped together, and the Department is not yet clear on how it will prioritise its interventions to ensure that they are served. The data available to help determine roll-out priorities is patchy and of variable quality. The Department acknowledges it is reliant on a good dataset but is not clear when it expects to have this in place. We had significant concerns that in the event of delays to the programme, the Department would look to deliver to as many premises as possible in a bid to meet its ambitious timetable. In this case, those people who currently lack superfast broadband would once more go to the back of the queue. Government’s announcements since our oral evidence session, reframing the target to 85% coverage by 2025 and not allocating three-quarters of the £5 billion allocation until after 2024–25, heighten these concerns. This suggests that many consumers, particularly those in rural and remote areas, will have to wait until well beyond 2025 for gigabit broadband speeds and may not even get superfast speeds before then. Recommendation: The Department should set out how it will establish which properties do not yet have superfast broadband, how reliable the data it will use to identify them is, and when they can expect to receive gigabit capable broadband.