Almost 700,000 “forgotten homes” across the UK are unable to get sufficiently fast broadband to meet a typical family’s needs, such as watching Netflix, downloading films and browsing YouTube.
Ofcom, the communications regulator, said 2% of UK homes and offices, about 677,000 properties, could not access broadband speeds of at least 10Mbps.
This is the bare minimum deemed necessary to cope with modern internet requirements, from downloading a film on Sky to streaming music and watching services such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.
Ofcom said rural families were being left behind where properties are far from the local exchanges that provide fast speeds. It said more than 73%, or 496,000, of the total “forgotten homes” were in rural areas.
Ofcom’s annual Connected Nations report found there had been a decline in the number of households and offices without the minimum speed connection, from 1.1m last year. The number has been steadily decreasing in recent years, falling from 1.4m in 2016 and 2.4m in 2015, as broadband providers continue to roll out services to rural premises.
While the number of homes without access to basic speed internet is dwindling, there are likely to be a number that may never be reached using traditional infrastructure.
“The rural broadband situation is looking rosier,” said Matt Powell, editor at Broadband Genie. “But the final 2% represents some of the areas which are hardest to reach with conventional broadband services. The most remote rural homes and businesses may need instead to look at wire-free alternatives such as satellite or 4G.”
Mobile operator Three UK is aiming to launch a 5G wireless home broadband service in the second half of next year.
Despite the almost UK-wide availability of minimum 10Mbps broadband, a recent report found that in reality more than a quarter of homes are on internet packages slower than that.
The government has promised that all homes and businesses will have a legal right to demand access to services offering speeds of at least 10Mbps by 2020. Broadband providers will face a legal requirement to provide this minimum standard to anyone requesting it, subject to a cost threshold.
There has also been growth in the rollout of “full fibre” broadband, which the government has referred to as the gold standard. The UK has been woefully and embarrassingly slow in delivering such services, ranking 32nd of 34 OECD countries.
Ofcom said full fibre internet is now available to 1.8m premises, a rise from 3% to 6% of homes and businesses, but the UK is still far behind countries such as Portugal, at 89%, and Spain, at 71%.
The regulator’s report also found that rural areas also face issues with mobile coverage. While 83% of urban homes and offices have so-called “complete” 4G coverage – services from all four major operators, Vodafone, EE, O2 and Three UK – it is a different story in rural areas. Just 41% of rural premises get complete mobile coverage, while Ofcom said that “in some remote parts of the country there is no coverage at all”.
