Publications

As the UK Government’s primary advisory group on digital connectivity, the DCF informs policy debates with the publication of evidence-based reports and responses to public consultations.

Our reports cover a wide range of issues affecting all organisations representing the digital connectivity value chain, and are generally produced by independent analysts and researchers. Understanding the demand for new connectivity services by households and businesses in the UK and how to deploy them form the core focus of our research.

Despite the diverse nature of the DCF sponsorship, our consultation responses generally reflect common views and input into ongoing policy or legislative developments.

The Investment Gap to Full 5G Rollout

The UK is at risk of failing to reap the full benefits of 5G according to a new report published by the Digital Connectivity Forum, the leading advisory body to UK Government on connectivity. The report, The Investment Gap to Full 5G Rollout, written in collaboration with Frontier Economics, examines the capacity of network operators to invest in new high-capacity, high-speed wireless 5G services.

Research on Very Hard to Reach Premises: Technical and commercial analysis

Digital Connectivity Forum has published primary research by leading consultancy Analysys Mason on the commercial and technical practicalities of providing broadband coverage to areas in the UK that are hardest to reach. The report significantly adds to the evidence base currently available to ensure a cost-effective subsidy programme is achieved.

COVID & accelerated digitalisation: the implications for broadband

The UK is undergoing a fundamental re-evaluation of the value that telecoms bring to the UK economy. The pandemic has consolidated the pivotal role that digital connectivity plays in underpinning the economy and wider society. Broadband and mobile connectivity have been the backbone of the accelerated drive to digital adoption, as the paper by Robert Kenny of Communications Chambers sets out.

The impact of COVID-19 on the digitally excluded

Broadband Stakeholder Group has published primary research on digital exclusion undertaken by the leading research consultancy, Savanta ComRes. The research closely examines the attitudinal challenges that the UK faces in encouraging greater internet adoption by 3.6 million digitally excluded citizens, alongside the financial, and skills-based aptitudes. The research examines the lived experience of 30 respondents during the first phase of the pandemic. The results suggest that that we may now need to broaden the scope of policy questions that relate to the pathways online for the digitally excluded.

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