Written evidence submitted by BT
[RBB 0091]
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Rural broadband and digital-only services inquiry
Copper and fibre broadband services cover more than 99% of the UK. Satellite broadband services are available for even the most remote areas. Virtually all farms should have access to broadband services suitable for CAP applications.
The UK is a world leader on broadband availability; more than 99% of UK homes have access to broadband (defined by the OECD as any service of 256Kbps or greater, enough to handle email and basic internet functionality); this is the best in the G8. Availability of superfast broadband has increased in the UK from around 60% at the end of 2011 to 78% in June 2014, keeping the UK ahead of its major competitors in the ‘EU5’ (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK), according to the latest Ofcom Communications Market Report. BT’s contribution to this extends to over 21 million premises today with some 1.5 million of these delivered as part of Broadband UK (BDUK), the government’s rural broadband programme, to date. This BT fibre footprint is increasing at a rate of some 60,000 premises a week. Customers can also choose from a range of service providers in addition to BT. Further broadband statistics can be found at Annex 1.
Only 3% of UK premises (around 850,000 premises) cannot get more than 2Mbps according to Ofcom’s latest data. At the time of the government’s original Digital Britain report in June 2009, more than 10% of lines’ speeds were below 2Mbps, some three million premises. The commercial investment by BT coupled with the BDUK deployments since that time have therefore significantly reduced the number of premises with speeds of below 2Mbps; this will further reduce by the end of the current BDUK deployments to around 1.5% of premises (circa 400,000).
Rural areas
Extensive broadband coverage in the UK, for both standard and ‘superfast’ fibre services, is not just confined to urban areas. The ADSL copper network is near universal, available in all rural areas including remote islands and other very rural locations across the UK. Fibre broadband is increasingly available in rural areas through BDUK deployment projects now having passed over 1.5 million premises and continuing at a rate of 40,000 rural premises a week. In addition to its own investments of about £2.5bn, BT has already committed some £700m of investment to BDUK and is likely to commit up to £1bn.
Although these projects are not yet complete, and there is of course more to be done, they will continue to deliver additional fibre broadband capabilities into rural UK, including some of the most rural and isolated locations. For example, BT is delivering superfast broadband to the Scilly Isles by diverting an undersea cable previously used to carry communications between the UK and Spain, and onwards. This will deliver superfast broadband services to all the premises on the islands. The population is just 2000 people on five islands, 45km off shore, and thus one of the most rural and isolated communities in the UK.
Farms and farm offices are, obviously, in rural areas. They are typically located relatively long distances from the local telephone exchange and from the street cabinet of BT’s network. Long distances from the exchange, and from the street cabinet, cause slow broadband speeds. As a result the speed in rural areas tends, on average, to be lower than that in urban areas. So, farms and farm offices tend to be clustered disproportionately into the slower service areas. However, even the speeds for the slowest lines, in the most rural areas, are improving as a result of the investment that BT is making on its own behalf and in conjunction with the government in BDUK. The latest Ofcom speed report highlights that speeds in rural areas improved by 20%, a significantly faster rate of improvement than that in urban areas.
The minimum recommended speed for CAP applications is 2Mbps. The number of lines unable to achieve over 2Mbps has dropped from over 10% of lines when BT started its fibre deployment to just 3% in the latest Ofcom report in September 2014. This figure will continue to drop still further as the BDUK deployment extends with fibre-based products to over 90% of the UK such that it will be around 1.5% by the end of the current build phase.
The government has also announced plans to extend the BDUK programme, with the next phase of funding targeted at getting the UK to 95% coverage. Since these additional funds are not yet fully allocated it is not possible to say exactly how much additional impact they will have on the further reducing ‘sub-2Mbps’ lines but it will mean that the number of slow speed lines will reduce even further, to below 1% of premises in the UK.
Other methods of providing broadband access
There are also non-fixed-link broadband alternatives. Customers in areas where speeds above 2Mbps via fixed link are difficult to achieve can utilise these. In particular, satellite broadband providers offer services across the UK at a range of speeds and prices. This means 2Mb broadband is essentially available to all premises by a variety of means. The European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes went so far as to declare last October that:
“Thanks to the extra coverage provided by satellite broadband, we have achieved our 2013 target of broadband for all. That’s a great result for European citizens.”
In summary, therefore, UK consumers and businesses benefit from the most competitive broadband market in Europe, with very high levels of standard broadband coverage from fixed providers and the highest levels of superfast broadband availability of any of the big five EU economies.
Even in the very hardest to reach rural areas there are range of service providers that can provide copper and fibre-based broadband and even the final few that cannot yet get a 2Mbps service via a fixed provider have the option of satellite broadband at affordable prices. Therefore there is no reason to expect that the availability or lack of availability of broadband services in rural UK will be an issue for the roll out of the CAP programme.
Superfast broadband will deliver economic and social benefits to the UK, including the delivery of digital services, such as CAP applications. However, everyone should be able to benefit from these services, particularly when the intention is that they are digital only. Alongside the development of accessible digital public services, we believe that there must be provision for people unable to use online services.
Access is only the first step: tools, skills, training and long-term support are essential to getting people online and ensuring they realise the benefits of being online. There are a number of efforts to support the farming community but there is work to be done, with the Rural Payments Agency reporting that around 13,000 farmers have only ever made paper claims for payments, with a further 12,000 who have registered to claim online but then failed to submit claims online. Actually getting some people to use online services for the first time will be a challenge.
BT has experience of the challenges of digital inclusion. For the last 12 years we have invested heavily in digital-inclusion projects through our Better Future (CSR) programme delivering projects across the UK. BT played a significant part delivering the original Race Online targets by creating 10,000 digital champions and helping 100,000 people to get online. Since 2011 we have run 15 regional ‘Get IT Together’ digital-inclusion programmes and support a network of over 9,000 charities through free web hosting and fundraising tools, many of which are in rural areas. Through Get IT Together we have worked closely with both urban and remote rural members of communities across all four countries of the UK. As one example, in Northern Ireland we have supported farmers and their families going through the training provided by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for new users of the Animal and Public Health Information System (APHIS) online herd-management scheme. Through this support in remote areas such as Augher, we have helped farmers to complete their online APHIS system input, with the aim of building up their digital skills, and resulting in fewer fines for submission of inaccurate information.
We also partner with Citizens Online, Scope, AbilityNet and RNIB to address issues of accessibility and work closely with housing associations to address the complex needs of their tenants.
The work done by Government Digital Services (GDS) to launch a digital inclusion strategy for the UK is a start, but additional funding is required to ensure that those unable to use digital services are not left behind, and this should include the farming community, particularly now that it is being asked to apply for grants, etc, through digital means . Government should continue to consult with experts in this field through GDS to encourage cross-sector collaboration.
BT and many others do provide support for a range of people who do not have the skills to use the internet for a number of reasons. However, the sudden introduction of a digital-only system to a community where many are not yet benefiting from the digital revolution may lead to some problems.
For those unable to use the web greater public access and digital skills and literacy support is critical. Anecdotal feedback to BT people and local partners demonstrates a lack of consistent provision and demand at libraries, for example, is not being met. Note that any investment needs to be carefully targeted; research from BT’s existing digital inclusion programmes also demonstrates that some public access areas are under used, and in many cases the staff in such areas do not have the knowledge or expertise to help novice users.
BT Group, November 2014
Rural broadband statistics
• BT’s copper broadband network covers more than 99% of premises
• BT’s fibre commercial broadband network covers more than 20m premises, two thirds of the UK
• BT has already committed some £700m of investment and is likely to commit up to £1bn to the government’s BDUK scheme.
• Fibre broadband has already been deployed in all 44 of phase one BDUK projects; all now have live street cabinets.
• BT has recently signed contracts to deliver in two additional areas, Black Country and South Yorkshire.
• BDUK projects are currently passing up to 40,000 premises a week.
• More than 30 local authorities have specified fibre to more than 90% of premises as part of phase one. We will go beyond 90% in other areas too.
• Two local authorities, North Yorks and Suffolk, have signed deals under the next phase of BDUK funding to provide coverage outside of the original roll-out.
• The government has announced that more than one million premises now have access to superfast fibre broadband under the BDUK programme.
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