Local Government Association Feel Shortchanged over Rural Broadband

UK-wide right to fast broadband – the cost of threshold plan could mean that hard-to-reach rural areas may be left out.

13:43 03 April 2018

Last week, the Government pledged to give everyone in the UK the legal right to demand fast broadband (at least 10Mbps). The 2017 Conservative manifesto vowed to bring in a Universal Service Obligation (USO) to “ensure that by 2020 every home and business in Britain has access to high speed broadband.”

 

However, the Government introduced a cost threshold of £3,400 per premise for the USO, which means that households and businesses with costs above the said amount will have to pay an excess charge to providers. Experts say that this could affect hard-to-reach areas, which already have patchy internet connection.

 

Council lobby group Local Government Association said that the proposed cost cap “would leave approximately 60,000 premises unserved by the USO.”

 

A spokesman for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport responded by saying that “the Universal Service Obligation means that remote rural communities can apply as a group to ensure they are connected without being subject to costs," 

 

The spokesperson added that it was "completely wrong to suggest that we are not delivering what we have committed to", adding that "everyone in the UK will have a legal right to highspeed broadband and nobody is going to miss out".