UK broadband: the truth about Britain's 'superfast' speeds
Ofcom says that the UK has the fastest broadband speeds in Europe, but others disagree...
The UK has the best access to superfast broadband in Europe, according to Ofcom.
It has been rolled out to 90% of homes, and independent broadband news site Thinkbroadband calculates that, by 2017, 95% of us will have superfast connections.
Openreach, which has been responsible for the UK’s broadband network, calls this “a fantastic achievement”.
So does your broadband speed feel “fantastic” to you?
If you’re among the 10% of homes still waiting for a connection, it probably doesn’t.
House of Commons figures claim that the slowest broadband speeds in the UK are Na h-Eileanan an Iar in the Outer Hebrides, at 5.6 mbps, followed by Argyll, and Bute at 8.5 mbps.
But the Local Government Association says this is a pipe dream for many people in rural areas, where during busy periods they are lucky to get 2 mbps.
Even if you are in a so-called superfast area, there’s a reasonable chance you’re not dancing in the streets either.
The Akamai State of the Internet Report ranked countries on their average internet speeds during the first quarter of 2016. It placed the UK at number 19 in the world.
On a European basis, we are way behind countries like Latvia at number 6, the Netherlands at 8, and the Czech Republic at 9.
We also lie behind Romania at 14, Bulgaria at 15 and Belgium at 17.
In 2016, it’s not unreasonable for us to expect ultrafast broadband to be available alongside superfast speeds. However, on this front, the UK it seems the UK is well behind the curve.
Thinkbroadband figures show the UK has rolled out pure fibre networks to just 1.56% of households. That compares to around 60% in Portugal and Spain.
Fed up with your broadband? Get a better deal with broadbandchoices.co.uk
Why?
To understand why we fare so poorly in speed terms means going back to how broadband has been rolled out in the UK. The job was handed to BT in 2010 – under its Openreach operations.
An Openreach spokesperson explains: “Our strategy has always been about getting the fastest possible speeds, to the largest number of people, in the shortest amount of time - and at an affordable price.”
It decided that the quickest and easiest way to do this was by focusing on running fibre to cabinets around the country. Internet connections to people’s homes then depend on the old fashioned copper wires that have always carried phone calls from the cabinets to houses.
This means speedy broadband gets to the cabinets, and then slows down dramatically. Copper wire slows the speeds in itself, so the further you are from a cabinet, the slower the speed you get.
The infrastructure is also in major demand, so in densely populated areas, at times of peak demand, speeds slow dramatically again.
Copper doesn’t function well when wet either, so the rain can spark issues and outages.
This doesn’t mean that a copper rollout was the wrong approach. It has enabled fairly high levels of coverage of superfast broadband, relatively quickly.
However, the execution of the rollout has been problematic. A House of Commons Committee reported back in July on how Openreach was doing, and its report makes dismal reading.
Overall it concluded that it has provided a "poor quality of service" to the internet providers that rely on its infrastructure.
It highlighted problems including delays in new line installations, frequently missed and changed installation appointments; increased fault rates, and a failure to meet targets to fix faults.
The committee pointed out that it didn’t help that Ofcom waited nine years to introduce financial penalties for missing minimum standards of service.
Sky gave evidence to the committee, and blamed a “history of under-investment in Openreach.”
The committee then explored these levels of investment, and found that despite the fact that Openreach is the most profitable business in BT Group, its investments, including in fibre, have not increased since 2009.”
It added that the figures suggest “that [Openreach] is in effect subsidising riskier projects in the rest of the [BT] Group such as sports rights and IP TV channels”.
What next?
Ofcom and the other internet providers are less worried about the strategy so far – of rolling out fibre to the cabinets. What concerns them is what happens next.
Ofcom told LoveMONEY exactly what it wants to see, explaining: “We want to see more fibre connections direct to people’s homes and offices, so the UK can remain a leading digital nation in years to come.”
Openreach, meanwhile, is planning an alternative approach. It will connect 2 million premises direct to the fibre network, but this will be mainly small businesses and new-build property.
The other 10 million ultrafast connections it is promising by 2020 will be ‘G.fast’ technology, which aims to eventually get 500 mbps out of copper. This is far slower than fibre to the door.
Ofcom isn’t convinced that Openreach, in its current form, can deliver the right development at the pace we need it. Every 10 years it reviews the market, and in its most recent review it has recognised that Openreach being an integral part of BT has held the market back.
It is not suggesting it has to be completely separated into an independent company – as this comes with challenges of its own – but suggests as much division as possible.
An Ofcom spokesperson told LoveMONEY: “BT has influence over significant Openreach decisions, and an incentive to make these decisions in the interests of its own retail businesses, rather than BT’s competitors, which can lead to competition problems.
Ofcom’s proposed changes are designed to ensure that Openreach acts more independently from BT Group, and takes decisions for the good of the wider telecoms industry and its customers.”
It also wants to make it easier for other telecoms providers to invest in better competing infrastructure themselves, by improving access to Openreach’s network of poles and underground tunnels.
This would make it easier for competitors to connect their own fibre optic cables directly to homes and businesses. From the end of July, new rules came into force giving telecoms providers more rights to access physical infrastructure.
Ofcom says: “This type of access has already resulted in greater fibre-to-the-premise deployment in Portugal, Spain and France.”
It is currently consulting on its proposals, and TalkTalk, Sky and Vodafone are leading a campaign called #FixBritainsInternet, encouraging people to press Ofcom to split Openreach more completely from BT, and force Openreach to roll out fibre broadband direct to more homes.
Five reasons why it's time to #campaign to #FixBritainsInternet - you can email @Ofcom here: https://t.co/UbfnGPQZuh pic.twitter.com/abvuvwxFdR
— FixBritainsInternet (@FixBritInternet) August 8, 2016
The cost
If change means more infrastructure and more providers in the market, it should bring the cost down too. At the moment, the UK’s standard broadband is among the cheapest in the world. Figures from the OECD compared the price of the most expensive standard tariffs in each country in 2014, and the UK was the 6th cheapest of all.
The House of Commons review concluded that this is because of Ofcom’s regulation of charges, which “has kept a downward pressure on prices, so that the UK’s communications prices are among the lowest compared with similar EU countries”.
Superfast broadband, however, is another question entirely, because instead of specifically regulating prices in this arena, Ofcom just insists BT keeps enough of a margin between its wholesale and retail charges to enable its competitors to buy wholesale internet and make a profit from selling it on.
As long as it keeps this margin, Openreach is free to charge providers whatever it wishes for wholesale access to superfast broadband. Some providers have suggested that this price is far too high.
Ofcom reviews this market every three years, and is about to kick off a review into the wholesale cost of superfast broadband, so we can only hope it considers more price regulation in this part of the market too.
In the meantime, there is a small chance that you can shop around. CityFibre, Sky and TalkTalk are connecting fibre to premises in York, and KCom is doing so in the Hull area.
Other providers, such as Hyperoptic and Gigaclear, are bringing ultrafast broadband to local areas.
Virgin Media, meanwhile, provides services to 45% of the country, and plans to extend this to 60%.
Otherwise, it’s a question of waiting for one of the companies to bring ultrafast broadband to your area, and hoping that it won’t be too expensive.
And waiting, unfortunately, is something that those of us with sluggish internet connections are all too familiar with.
Fed up with your broadband? Get a better deal with broadbandchoices.co.uk
More on household bills:
The water companies you complain about the most
5% off your supermarket shop: new loyalty scheme launches
Comments
Be the first to comment
Do you want to comment on this article? You need to be signed in for this feature