Has COVID-19 changed the priority of the UK’s gigabit broadband plan?

Connectivity has been at the heart of keeping the UK running during the coronavirus pandemic, with operators working hard to maintain their networks during this difficult time. Almost every aspect of the telecoms sector has been hit by the impact of the virus, but to what extent will the crisis affect operator’s ability to deliver on national broadband plans?

 

Prior to the virus outbreak, the UK government had set ambitious connectivity goals for 2025, aiming to have gigabit-capable broadband available to every home and business. Now, in the wake of global disruption of almost every aspect of national and international businesses, we must ask ourselves: are these targets still feasible?

 

Total Telecom’s latest webinar, Fibre Britain 2025: How the UK can overcome engineering and deployment challenges to deliver full fibre by 2025, does just that, with an expert panel sharing exactly how the crises has affected their business and their ability to deliver on the country’s fibre goals.

  

“The virus has had a huge impact on our civil works,” said Matthew Hare, CEO of Zzoomm. “We saw the dichotomy of, on the one hand, people who were scared and didn’t want you anywhere near their house for any reason and, on the other hand, people working from home and using their broadband 16–20 hours a day.” 

 

The webinar was fully interactive and some dissonant audience poll results early in the session led to very interesting discussion. One poll put to the audience found that around 60% saw the UK’s fibre goals for 2025 as unachievable; however, a similar number also thought that the COVID-19 crisis had increased the priority for delivering ubiquitous gigabit broadband.

 

“The requirement for first-class, gigabit broadband has never been stronger,” said Richard Thorpe, chief delivery officer at CityFibre.

 

Meanwhile, Dave Clarkson, interim group director, competition, at Ofcom, noted that the pandemic had shown the existing networks to hold up remarkably well to the increase in traffic. He argued that though upgrading rapidly was still a high priority, when it comes to capacity the need is not yet critical. 

 

“There is still a lot more capacity in the current network than is currently being exploited,” he explained, pointing to the toughest-to-reach populations in the UK as perhaps being more deserving of immediate focus.