Recommendation 7

We pointed out to the Department that a year has passed since the general election pledge and with 2021 fast approaching, the level of roll-out would have to be extraordinarily quick to achieve nationwide gigabit connectivity by 2025.13 The Department acknowledged that 2025 was “a very challenging target to meet” requiring it to “strain every sinew to make that happen” but was not prepared to admit that it would not meet it.14 Since we took oral evidence, government has dropped the 2025 date for nationwide gigabit coverage and, in its National Infrastructure Strategy (NIS) published in November 2020, has announced a revised target to reach “a minimum of 85% gigabit capable coverage by 2025”. The NIS says that government will seek to accelerate roll-out to get as close to 100% as possible but there is no date for achieving 100%.15