Queen's Speech December 2019 - Broadband legislation

• Support the roll out of gigabit-capable broadband across the UK to achieve nationwide coverage as soon as possible so people can reap the huge benefits of the fastest, most secure and resilient internet connections

Territorial extent and application

● Telecommunications policy is a reserved matter. The Bill's provisions would extend and apply to the whole of the UK, with the exception of legislative proposals relating to housing, which are devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Other measures

• ●  To ensure that no part of the country is left without next-generation broadband, the Government has recently pledged £5 billion to support the rollout of gigabit-capable broadband in the hardest to reach 20 per cent of the country.

• ●  In the two years to 2021 the Government have already committed £650 million to stimulate the market to deploy gigabit-capable connections in urban and rural areas through:

  • ○  The £400 million Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund.

  • ○  The £200 million Local Full Fibre Networks Programme which funds locally-led full fibre projects.

  • ○  The £200 million Rural Gigabit Connectivity Programme which will deploy gigabit capable broadband to local hubs in rural areas, starting with primary schools.

  • ○  The £67 million Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.

• ●  To further support the commercial environment for investment, the Government laid its Statement of Strategic Priorities for Ofcom in Parliament, formally confirming the regulation needed to maximise the deployment of gigabit-capable broadband.

• ●  The Government has committed to spend £1.8 billion to bring superfast broadband to over 96 per cent of the country, with thousands of homes and businesses connected each week.

• ●  Not all areas of the country have decent broadband. To tackle this the Government has introduced the Universal Service Obligation of 10 megabits per second. This is due to come into force in March next year and will give every home and business the legal right to request a decent connection up to a Reasonable Cost Threshold of £3,400 per premise.

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Key facts

• ●  One in seven people in the UK live in flats or apartments and it is estimated there are 450,000 blocks of flats in the UK.

• ●  40 per cent of operators’ requests seeking access from a landlord receive no response.

• ●  It is estimated that operators will be able to connect an extra 3,000 properties a year as a result of the Leasehold Property Bill.

• ●  22 per cent of new build developments in 2019 have been built without a gigabit-capable connection.

• ●  Around 40,000 new homes were built in 2019 without full fibre.

• ●  A gigabit-capable network connection is one that is capable of achieving 1,000 megabits per second, i.e. 1 gigabits per second, download speeds.