Next steps in Government’s £5 billion gigabit broadband plan
The government has today set out the next steps in its £5 billion strategy to deliver next generation, gigabit-capable broadband to the entire country.
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22 December 2020
A consultation has been launched on the draft procurement strategy for the UK Gigabit Programme setting out plans to connect the first one million homes and businesses with gigabit speed broadband and maximise coverage in the hardest to reach 20% of the UK by 2025.
Homes and businesses that do not yet have access to superfast broadband will be prioritised. Their speeds will rocket from less than 30 megabits per second to more than 1,000 megabits per second, or one gigabit per second.
Resources for communications network providers
This section provides guidance for communications network providers on legislation, regulation, working with local authorities and with property developers.
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The government recognises the challenges communications network providers face in deploying digital infrastructure and has created the Barrier Busting Task Force (BBTF) to work with industry, local authorities and landowners to identify and remove barriers to deployment, including changes to the law.
This section provides guidance for providers on working collaboratively with local authorities, land owners, and property developers, and adopting best practice within the current legal framework.
Working with local authorities
Less money available for technology neutral non-future-proof downgraded national gigabit plan Lack of effective planning and inadequate investment
Current plan is embedding digital inequality rather than solving it
The current UK government has developed a well-deserved reputation for over-promising and under-delivering in anything it does; witness the woeful and rudderless response to the Covid-19 pandemic. At a lesser level, (in that it is not directly costing human lives on a daily basis), exactly the same thing applies to the much-vaunted and oft-repeated pledges to make the UK a 100 per cent superfast broadband nation by 2025.
Having promised that technological nirvana right up until two months ago, despite many indications that it was pie-in-the sky wishful-thinking, the Johnson administration (if that s the right word) rowed back on its pledge and, late in November, trimmed it back to a new promise that it would achieve 85 per cent superfast broadband coverage
| 22 December 2020
The UK government is set to miss even its scaled back targets to roll out gigabit broadband across the UK according to a report from the UK s Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee.
The warning comes as the UK government launches a consultation on the draft procurement strategy for its UK Gigabit Programme, setting out plans to connect the first one million homes and businesses with gigabit speed broadband and maximise coverage in the hardest to reach 20% of the UK by 2025.
It follows the announcement in November 2020 that the government was rolling back its original plan to deliver gigabit broadband to “every home” by 2025 to “minimum of 85% coverage” by 2025; a move that was criticised by the UK broadband industry. The budget of the plan remains at the £5 billion, set out as a manifesto commitment by the UK government a year ago, but only £1.2 billion of that sum will be made available up until 2024.