GigaTAG Tells UK Gov How to Boost Gigabit Broadband Adoption UPDATE

The new Gigabit Take-Up Advisory Group (GigaTAG), which is supported by Which?, Ofcom, the FSB, CBI and other groups, has today set out their final report on what they think the UK Government needs to do in order to boost take-up of 1Gbps capable broadband services. Expect clearer labelling and more advertising campaigns.

At the end of last year over 37% of premises were already within reach of “gigabit” (1000Mbps+) speeds and that’s up from 22.1% a year earlier (here). By the end of 2021 this is expected to reach over 60% of premises, which is mostly thanks to Virgin Media’s DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade of their existing Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network, as well as the increasingly rapid deployment of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks.

On top of that the Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme is aiming to boost this by targeting a minimum of 85% “gigabit-capable” network coverage of the UK by the end of 2025, although its focus is primarily on fostering such connectivity to the final 20% of hardest to reach – mostly rural – premises (c.5-6 million). By comparison, commercial deployments alone are largely expected to reach around 80%+ of premises (Openreach alone may hit this).

Network availability thus remains a key barrier to adoption of gigabit capable networks, although today’s report is more concerned with what happens once that service has actually become available. Helping operators to grow take-up by consumers is important because it confirms the business model to investors (operators often like to get at least 20-25% take-up) and that in-turn can encourage more investment.

At the same time, we shouldn’t forget that take-up of any new service is something that will usually grow organically over time. Only on very rare occasions do we see 100% of people in a given area sign-up to a new service immediately, instead it often takes several years for this to mature (growing most rapidly during the first 1-3 years). A quick look at the historic take-up of so-called “superfast” (24-30Mbps+) lines helps to highlight all this.

The Challenge of Growing Take-up

We know from history that a number of factors can impact take-up, such as the higher prices for gigabit-capable services, as well as a lack of general awareness (i.e. people not knowing that it exists in their area) or interest in the new connectivity (e.g. if you have a decent ADSL2+ or FTTC speed and only basic needs then you might feel less inclined to upgrade).

The fear of switching to a different ISP may also be obstructive, and so can long-term contracts with existing packages (customers can’t switch immediately). On top of that, we’ve long complained about the difficulty of accessing coverage data to build our own multi-network availability checker, with major operators like Openreach and Virgin Media being resistant or putting too many obstacles in the way.

In other cases, gigabit services may be available, but consumers might choose not to sign-up due to a dislike of the ISP offering the service (i.e. once bitten, twice shy) or the fact that there may not be enough service choice from the only available ISP (e.g. lack of static IP addresses or being forced to use a poor quality bundled router).

GigaTAG’s Solution

The preliminary December 2020 report from GigaTAG (here) proposed a number of possible changes, such as clearer labelling and terminology for related broadband packages (potentially ending the abuse of “fibre” in FTTC broadband advertising). A report from CityFibre and WIK Consult in March 2021 has already put some flesh on the idea of a new labelling system (here).

On top of that, there was talk of additional information campaigns to help raise awareness of new networks and a new availability tool to help people discover what’s available. Sadly, this idea didn’t make it into the final recommendations as GigaTAG were concerned about the “risk of duplication” with existing checkers, and they also recognised Ofcom’s work implementing the EECC. This requires providers to share address-level broadband availability information that is published on their websites with qualifying digital comparison tools by December 2021, although we haven’t seen much activity or engagement on that front from the biggest players.

We should point out that some of the other barriers identified by the group are already being addressed through Ofcom’s current work programme (e.g. improved switching between networks, end-of-contract and annual best tariff notifications etc.). Otherwise, the final report largely echoes many of the aforementioned ideas.

The question now is on when and how this will all be implemented. The ideas are clearly on the table, but it will still require a concerted effort from the government, Ofcom and UK ISPs in order to ensure that they are acted upon.

Rocio Concha, Chair of the Gigabit Take-up Advisory Group, said:

“Digital connectivity has never been more important, with the pandemic highlighting how dependent consumers are on a good broadband connection for daily activities such as remote working, access to services and keeping in touch with family and friends.

Demand for faster, more reliable broadband services is crucial to the success of the roll-out of gigabit-capable broadband, and to ensure the benefits of these connections are realised. Better information about the benefits, measures to improve the language used to describe these services, along with possible targeted voucher and discount schemes, will help to address the barriers preventing consumers from benefiting from better connections.”

Matt Warman, UK Digital Infrastructure Minister, said:

“Gigabit broadband is the next giant leap forward in internet technology and our record £5 billion investment is rapidly fueling the rollout – with 60 per cent of the UK due to have access by the end of this year, up from just 12 per cent in 2019.

We believe passionately in making sure everyone can feel the benefits of these lightning-fast speeds and I will be carefully considering GigaTAG’s welcome proposals for boosting consumer take-up.”

We should point out that some of these ideas might yet meet resistance, much as we saw when Cityfibre failed in their attempts to stop slower “part fibre” (hybrid fibre) ISPs from using “fibre” terminology in their adverts, which many gigabit-capable “full fibre” (FTTP) providers have long felt to be “misleading“. But as the market moves on from FTTC then that bridge may become easier for everybody to cross.

Nevertheless, the real barrier remains one of availability and choice. As we said earlier, as networks evolve then consumers do eventually adapt and, eventually, there will come a time when major ISPs need to start considering the merits of automatically migrating customers on to these newer networks from legacy platforms. But we probably won’t see mass migrations like that until coverage has improved.

Gigabit Take-up Advisory Group’s Final Report (PDF)

UPDATE:

Added a comment from the UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA).

Andrew Glover, Chair of ISPA, said:

“ISPA welcomed the opportunity to support the work of the GigaTAG. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of digital connectivity more than ever and while our members are rolling out gigabit capable networks at pace, it will be equally important to ensure that take-up continues to grow. GigaTAG makes a number of important recommendations and it will now be the responsibility of our members, Ofcom, local and central Government to take these forward.”

David Cullen, INCA Board Member and Representative on GigaTAG Stakeholder Group, added:

“INCA was delighted to be part of the GigaTAG stakeholder group and share the insights of the many altnet members driving adoption as well as coverage of gigabit services. The benefits of ‘going giga’ have been recognised before; the GigaTAG report is highly valuable in identifying the obstacles and suggesting recommendations to overcome them.

We strongly encourage all stakeholders to maintain this momentum- with its focus on ‘clarity and quality’ as much as ‘speed’ – to improve adoption by residents and businesses above the >30% average seen on altnet networks nationally (cf the recent Point Topic report). This will in turn provide even greater assurance for operators and investors in accelerating the use of their £12.1bn of funding alongside HM Govt’s grants, to achieve our intention for a fully Fibred ‘Faster Britain’ ahead of 2030.”

UPDATE 8:57am

We’ve had a few more comments come in.

An Ofcom Spokesperson said:

“We agree it’s important people can understand the benefits of these faster, more reliable connections. So we’ve already begun work with industry to make sure customers can compare clear, consistent information from different providers.”

Catherine Colloms, Openreach MD for Corporate Affairs, said:

“We’ve been stressing the importance of awareness and adoption of better broadband for years, so it’s encouraging to see GigaTAG working to address these challenges in the market.

Nearly five million homes and businesses can order an ultrafast, ultra-reliable ‘full fibre’ broadband service over our network today and there’s a range of different providers offering some fantastic deals using our infrastructure.

We’re building to 25 million premises all over the UK during the next five years, so we’d encourage everyone to visit our online postcode checker to see when our £15bn build programme will be reaching their town or village.”

Netgem UK, TV and WiFi Supplier for Ultrafast Altnet ISPs, said:

“Netgem welcomes the GigaTAG report and its recommendations on use cases to help demonstrate the benefits of gigabit broadband, but by failing to recognise the importance of triple and quad play services like TV as a key part of an incentive to switch, it is a bit of a missed opportunity.

As the report makes clear, consumers need to be encouraged to upgrade to gigabit speeds. Being able to offer a TV service and access premium entertainment streaming services will not only help customers see the value of upgrading to faster speeds, it will also help new operators deploying full fibre compete with more established names.”

UPDATE 9:59am

More comments..

Greg Mesch, CEO at CityFibre, said:

“With future-proof Full Fibre being rolled out at pace across the UK, GigaTAG’s report makes clear that consumers do not yet have the information they need to switch to and benefit from the superior connectivity that will soon be available to them. At this critical point in the UK’s Full Fibre journey, we cannot afford to leave consumers in the dark.

We look forward to working with all stakeholders to ensure consumers have the full range of information available to them – upload speed as well as download speed, reliability and resilience – so they can make an informed choice of the product and network type that best meets their needs.”

A Virgin Media O2 spokesperson said:

“As the demand for data continues to grow, we’re going gangbusters for gigabit to bring future-proof services to more homes and businesses – delivering these speeds across our entire broadband network by the year end. With this major investment providing greater value and speeds almost 15 times faster than the national average, we welcome any thinking that is aimed at increasing awareness and the understanding of this next-generation connectivity.”

Tristia Harrison, CEO at TalkTalk, says:

“We support the research carried out by GigaTAG and continue to work with the government, Ofcom and wider industry to promote the levelling up of the UK by ensuring full fibre is affordable and accessible for all. Limited awareness of full fibre and its benefits is a clear barrier to adoption, so it’s important that we work together to build consumer understanding.”

Paul Stobart, CEO of Zen Internet, added:

“The internet’s importance has become even more apparent over the past 18 months and whilst it’s good to see the UK government heavily investing in improving connectivity across the country, it’s vital that as an industry we don’t fail on educating consumers and businesses on the benefits this brings.

Gigabit broadband is going to play a crucial part in levelling up the accessibility to high-speed internet for the whole country. Many are already reaping its benefits with significantly enhanced download and upload speeds, reduced wait times and an improved online experience. For consumers this can mean a much better service for online gaming, streaming 4K and potentially even 8K television in the future. Whereas for businesses, this can be instrumental in improving the customer journey, enhancing speed of downloading large files, enabling access to cloud-based storage and much more, empowering any UK business that is an early adopter, a tangible advantage over competitors.”