Government roll-out of superfast broadband remains on track

The latest Broadband Performance Indicator report published by Government shows that superfast broadband has now been made accessible to nearly 4 million premises in the UK (900,000 more premises since June 2015) thanks to projects funded by the Broadband Delivery UK Programme (BDUK).

The BDUK programme is a publicly funded project (£1.7bn) designed to complement private sector investment in the deployment of superfast broadband (24Mbit/s), with the aim to reach over 95% of UK premises by the end of 2017.

According to this newest update, the programme is progressing well, with nationwide coverage of superfast broadband passing 90% of premises in April. Coverage and reliability will continue to improve over the coming years, with BT recently announcing the first phase of a plan to extend the coverage of superfast broadband to over 95% by 2020, and Virgin Media announcing the rollout of Fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) to 4 million households by 2019.

Plans for a Universal Service Obligation (USO) to make broadband available to the hardest to reach areas (the final 5%) are still under consultation. Findings from the responses to these consultations will assist Government and industry in identifying the best approach and options to fund deployment of a USO.