Thirty-fifth Report - Improving Broadband

The Department is not clear how, in a centralised procurement model, it will retain the people, skills and knowledge in local authorities that were critical to success in the superfast programme. The Department recognises that although it now intends to … Read more The Department is not clear how, in a centralised procurement model, it will retain the people, skills and knowledge in local authorities that were critical to success in the superfast programme. The Department recognises that although it now intends to undertake procurement directly, it will still need the commitment and expertise accumulated previously within local authorities to support delivery 6 Improving Broadband under the gigabit programme. The Local Government Association has called for additional annual funding of £30 million for digital champions to co-ordinate delivery at a local level and to provide the additional capacity needed within highways and planning teams to support an accelerated pace of activity. The Department cannot give any reassurance that local authorities will get additional funding to retain their expert resources at a time when local government finances are under severe pressure from the pandemic. Recommendation: The Department should set out in its Treasury Minute response to this report, what steps it is taking to support the retention of knowledge, skills and delivery expertise in local authorities so that the change in approach does not cause delays to the future programme. Show less

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he Department has been unable to show how it has learnt lessons from the superfast programme into the detailed design of the gigabit programme. The Department’s objectives for its superfast programme were unspecific and delivery of the 95% broadband coverage … Read more he Department has been unable to show how it has learnt lessons from the superfast programme into the detailed design of the gigabit programme. The Department’s objectives for its superfast programme were unspecific and delivery of the 95% broadband coverage target by 2017 sat largely with suppliers rather than being within the Department’s control. With full-fibre and gigabit coverage at 14%and 27% respectively on publication of the NAO’s report, which is behind other European countries, the Department is some way off its superfast programme objective to be “the best in Europe”. While the Department agrees that it needs to have clear objectives in place at the time of launching the subsidised element of its gigabit programme, we are not reassured that its new programme objectives will be any better. It is unacceptable that, once again, the Department has set a nationwide target for coverage (now revised from 100% to 85% by 2025), yet it has not published a realistic strategy for rolling it out, and has limited control over the levers necessary to achieve it. Indeed, the Department is relying on suppliers to deliver to 80% of UK premises without government subsidy. We are also concerned that the Department has not learned lessons about where to target areas for subsidy. The Department estimates that of the £1.9 billion public funding for the Superfast Programme, £0.9 billion is due to be repaid, which suggests that the subsidy was often not targeted at the areas in greatest need. It can take up to seven years before the amounts to be returned are calculated and repaid by suppliers. Recommendation: As the Department finalises its approach to its gigabit programme it should set out how it is incorporating the lessons learned from the superfast programme including: • Setting out clear programme specific objectives for the subsidised part of the future gigabit programme (the £5bn programme) • How it intends to improve its targeting to ensure it covers only those areas i Show less

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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 … Read more 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. Show less

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The Department cannot provide certainty to consumers that they will have a choice of internet provider or be protected from overcharging should they become tied to the sole supplier in an area. The Department wants to encourage greater competition in … Read more The Department cannot provide certainty to consumers that they will have a choice of internet provider or be protected from overcharging should they become tied to the sole supplier in an area. The Department wants to encourage greater competition in the telecommunications infrastructure market, but in areas that need subsidy, smaller alternative suppliers may gain dominant positions by default through lack of wider commercial interest. The Department believes that provisions for wholesale access in the gigabit programme contracts should ensure that all internet service providers have access to subsidised networks. However, such access may not be taken up if the most popular internet providers find it commercially unattractive to offer their services over a patchwork of different networks each serving a low number of premises. Some consumers, particularly in rural areas, may not be able to sign up with their service provider of choice and may end up paying more for their services. The Department claims price control provisions should ensure that providers cannot price beyond what is reasonably comparable in a given area, but it is not clear how it will define an area nor how price controls will work. Recommendation: In its Treasury Minute response to this report, the Department should set out how it plans to work with Ofcom, suppliers and industry bodies to ensure that all consumers will have a choice of service providers and are protected from overcharging, in particular where they become tied to a monopoly supplier. 8 Improving Broadband 1 Delivering the future programme Show less

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The Department has failed to make meaningful progress to tackle the barriers faced by operators in maximising gigabit connectivity by 2025. At the time we took evidence in early November, the Department expected that state aid rules would be a domestic matter from 2021 onwards and EU approval would no …

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On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on improving broadband.1

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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” …

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The National Audit Office’s report called for the Department to present a detailed plan and schedule identifying how it will meet the timeline.16 But when we pressed for a broad timetable or indicative dates for the essential steps towards achieving the target, the Department stated that it was awaiting Ministerial …

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The Department describes the £5 billion it has budgeted for its gigabit programme as ‘critical’. It said that it was continuing as if the programme would gain approval from HM Treasury and expected the funding to be confirmed at the forthcoming spending review.19 We asked whether the spending review was …

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The Department explained that it was focussed on removing barriers to rapid roll out, such as the cost of streetworks or a planning system that prevents telecoms operators from getting access to premises, by working with other government departments and through legislation and regulation.22 The National Audit Office’s report included …

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We asked about progress towards resolving the barriers which industry has repeatedly said need to be addressed if it is to progress the commercial roll-out to reach 80% of UK premises by 2025. The Department said that it is working on this, but Openreach told us that the legislation introduced …

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The National Audit Office report stated that the requirement to remove equipment supplied by high risk vendors from telecoms networks puts the schedule at risk.29 The Department conceded that this might cause a delay to the future programme and that it was consulting with industry on precise implications, but was …

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The National Audit Office report sets out how the Department intends to adopt a centralised procurement for its gigabit programme, even though it considered the partnership approach that it used under the Superfast Programme to have been very successful. The report said that the knowledge and experience of local bodies …

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In its evidence to us the Local Government Association (LGA) called for additional annual funding of £30 million for digital champions in Local Authorities. The LGA expects digital champions to co-ordinate delivery at a local level and to provide additional capacity, for example, in highways and planning teams to support …

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The National Audit Office’s report said that it had been difficult to assess the Superfast Programme’s performance because it lacked programme-specific measures against which to judge success. It explained that the Department’s coverage targets, for example, to reach 95% of UK premises with superfast broadband infrastructure by 2017, were not …

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The Department told us that it wanted to have very clear objectives and to be clear about the benefits for the subsidised part of its gigabit programme but could offer no further detail on how it intends to design and conduct the evaluation of that programme.40 The 31 C&AG’s Report, …

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The National Audit Office report noted that the Department estimates £0.9 billion of funding will be returned by suppliers where capital expenditure was lower than expected or actual take-up of superfast broadband is higher than expected.45 The Department told us that because some of this represents future profits measured over …

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The Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review sets out government’s intention to take an ‘outside-in’ approach to rolling out gigabit-capable broadband, where areas that are currently unable to access superfast speeds are prioritised so they are not left further behind.48 The Department told us that it still aimed to focus on areas …

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The National Audit Office’s report describes how the Superfast Programme was able to leave the very hardest to reach premises until last when, in a bid to meet its timeline, the Department prioritised maximising the number of premises reached over providing for those in greatest need.53 We asked for assurance …

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Since we took evidence, the government has reduced its coverage target to “a minimum of 85% by 2025” and the Department has been allocated less than a quarter of the £5 billion for supporting the hardest to reach the countries over the four years to 2025. The National Infrastructure strategy …

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The National Audit Office was concerned that greater competition in the broadband infrastructure market would not necessarily lead to a greater choice of internet providers for consumers. In its report, it explained that in areas that needed subsidy, smaller alternative infrastructure providers could gain dominant positions. Its report also set …

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We asked the Department how it intended to protect consumers in areas with a single dominant supplier from being charged a lot more without proper competition. The Department told us that its contracts had price control provisions to ensure that internet providers cannot charge beyond what is reasonably comparable in …

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