The Senedd’s Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure
Committee is warning that people in Wales are being left behind
with ‘sub-par, unreliable broadband’ that risks ‘excluding people
from modern life’ due to barriers in receiving high-quality
superfast internet.
The Committee’s latest report examined broadband connectivity in
Wales and found that, despite improvements over the last few
years, many people are still unable to access adequate internet
speeds.
Although superfast broadband availability in Wales is now at 96%,
figures from Ofcom show that take-up in Wales is only around 63%.
Mountainous Wales
The report found that the provision of superfast broadband across
Wales was uneven, with urban areas being the first to benefit
from better connectivity but many rural areas still being unable
to access a decent internet connection.
Ofcom estimates that around 15,000 premises cannot get a
broadband service of at least 10Mbps download speed and 1Mbps
upload speed from fixed or fixed wireless networks in Wales.
The UK Government’s Project Gigabit is a £5bn project designed to
address this issue across the UK with the ‘Gigabit Broadband
Voucher Scheme’ created to support rural areas with the
installation costs of high-speed broadband.
But because of the mountainous Welsh topography there is a higher
proportion of difficult-to-reach properties in Wales compared to
other parts of the UK.
And according to , the Deputy Minister for Climate
Change who gave evidence to the Committee, “UK
funding has failed to reflect the true cost of deploying in the
Welsh landscape”. To address this issue, and despite it being a
non-devolved area, the Welsh Government provided top-up funding
to the UK Government scheme to “plug the gap” in Wales.
But from 31 March 2022, the Welsh Government stopped topping-up
the gigabit voucher scheme, which has led the Committee to call
for the UK Government to raise the amount of support available
for individuals and businesses to address the particular needs in
Wales.
The report warned that without meaningful engagement between
governments there is nothing to prevent the UK administration
creating a scheme that again does not meet the needs of
Wales.
Connections and Cost
Since March 2020, households that cannot get a download speed of
10 Mbps and an upload speed of 1 Mbps, can request an upgraded
connection from BT under the Universal Service Obligation
(USO).
This obliges BT to improve the connection for free if the
installation cost is estimated to be below £3,400 for the
customer. But if the cost exceeds the £3,400 cap, the customer
must pay the excess.
The Committee expressed serious concerns that this would simply
be unaffordable to many people -particularly in the middle of a
cost-of-living crisis - and urged the Welsh Government to discuss
raising the level of the cap with the UK Government.
And according to Ofcom, there are an estimated 7,000 ‘hard to
reach’ locations where, even with the USO, access to a stable
broadband connection wouldn’t be guaranteed.
Inclusion and Affordability
The Committee also heard that one of the many reasons for the
lack of take-up of superfast broadband by people was cost. Many
internet providers offer ‘social tariff’ packages which are only
available to people receiving government benefits which allows
them to access cheaper internet deals.
But the report highlights the worrying fact that only 1.2% of
those eligible for a ‘social tariff’ had accessed the scheme,
potentially leaving thousands of low-income households paying
over the odds for their broadband.
The Committee proposes that action should be taken to increase
the number of households enrolling on ‘social tariffs’ by making
the process clearer and simpler. Lack of awareness of ‘social
tariffs’ was noted as a significant issue with the Committee
proposing that their promotion must be improved and consideration
should even be given to the automatic enrolment of those
eligible.
In light of the severe cost-of-living crisis, the report warns
that there is a risk that superfast broadband access will become
a luxury that many will not be able to afford.
, Chair of the Climate
Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee,
said, “It is extremely disappointing to hear of
many people in Wales still unable to access superfast broadband.
Especially since the pandemic, more and more of our lives are
lived online, and it’s simply unfair that many in rural areas are
expected to put-up with sub-par, unreliable broadband. Everyone
in Wales, not just those in urban areas, should be able to access
a high-speed internet connection - this shouldn’t be a luxury.
“Many of the issues we examined are non-devolved so we urge the
Welsh Government to take on board our recommendations and present
the solutions in this report to the UK Government - or the
failures we see in this report will be repeated.
“With living costs rising sharply, the UK Government must
urgently look at raising the Universal Service Obligation cap and
improving the take-up of broadband services offering a ‘social
tariff’. If things don’t change, we will undoubtedly see more
people excluded from modern life.”
