The Chancellor has delivered a “kick in the teeth to people living in rural areas” by quietly dropping a pledge to connect the whole of the UK with gigabit capable broadband by 2025, pulling it back to just 85pc.
“The Government is working with industry to target a minimum of 85pc gigabit capable coverage by 2025, but will seek to accelerate roll-out further to get as close to 100pc as possible,” according to The National Infrastructure Strategy, published on Wednesday alongside the Treasury’s Spending Review.
The pledge to provide the UK with gigabit broadband has already been watered down once. In 2019, Boris Johnson promised to provide the whole UK with “full fibre” broadband by 2025.
This was later changed after industry warned of astronomical costs, to “gigabit capable”, meaning speeds could be carried by 5G network signals and copper cables, as well as full fibre.
Experts warned that millions of people leaving in remote areas now would be left unable to access access one gigabit speeds by 2025, despite £5bn pledged for the technology’s deployment.
An industry source said: “It is a surprise to us. Everyone thought [the 2025 goal] was a stretch, but wanted to go for it. Broadband is a big thing for levelling up, so it is a kick in the teeth for people in rural areas.”
As part of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s spending review, the Government earmarked £1.2bn to subsidise gigabit broadband over the next five years, just part of its overall £5bn pledge. Networks operators had warned that delays in allocating the funding would put the project further behind schedule.
It comes after Matt Warman, the Digital Minister, cautioned the 2025 Conservative manifesto pledge would be a “difficult challenge” and that the target would be “harder to reach” after coronavirus and the decision to exclude high risk vendors from the UK’s 5G and fibre networks. He also warned that UK broadband customers could see rising costs.
Matthew Howett, an analyst at Assembly Research, said: “The original target for 2025 was always an ambitious one, but crucially one the industry felt it could deliver with the right enabling regulatory environment. To depart from the original target with five years still left to run suggests perhaps that mountains can’t be moved after all.”
A Treasury spokesman said the Government remained committed to its nationwide goal and to investing £5bn for hardest to reach areas.
Meanwhile, the Government will spend an additional £250m to prise networks away from using kit made by China’s Huawei and diversify the network.
Network operators and Britain’s cyber spies have warned that the UK’s telecoms companies had become too reliant on just three equipment suppliers.
These included Huawei, the Chinese telecoms equipment maker, that has been accused of posing an espionage risk by US security officials, which it has always denied.
The Government announced in July it would ban networks from buying new Huawei kit for faster 5G mobile networks by the end of the year, and strip it from their networks by 2027.
According to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s spending review, the Government will spend £250m as part of a “commitment to building a secure and resilient 5G network”.
Operators including Japan’s NEC have emerged as possible options for building more of the UK’s 5G network.
Other UK network spending includes a £50m 5G mobile test bed.
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