Gigabit networks for all by 2025
I have a passion for cycling and for some time have wanted to start making cycling videos. That dream came true last birthday when my wife gave me a GoPro video camera. Straight away I discovered the GoPro produces huge files, which users can store and edit locally, or upload to the GoPro cloud service. Uploading gigabytes of data over a normal home Internet connection can be a painful and slow process. However we are fortunate, we are amongst the 10% of the population to have a full fibre, symmetric gigabit connection, in our case from Hyperoptic. Using the GoPro cloud service is a doddle.
When we first bought the Hyperoptic connection it seemed like a real luxury, but soon became part of daily life. Yes, streaming movies works better, but we quickly found that uploading to a cloud service is as quick and painless as storing data on the computer hard drive. Great for photos and videos, but equally good for work documents, last-minute presentation tweaks and sharing large data files. Everything just works.
The Government is pressing industry to build ‘gigabit capable’ networks everywhere by 2025, enabling everyone to share these benefits. It’s a tall order but the digital infrastructure sector is stepping up to the challenge. Full fibre networks are being built at pace and a new generation of wireless broadband services will help reach some of the more challenging rural communities.
The task hasn’t just been allocated to Openreach, BT’s infrastructure arm, Virgin Media is playing its part alongside a crop of independent altnets - smaller companies attracting hundreds of millions in new investment from infrastructure investors (and in some cases, directly from local communities). Government is playing its part by allocating £5bn of new funding designated 'Outside-In" alongside its existing rural programmes.
The big question is whether the task ahead - and the 2025 timetable - is achievable. Amongst industry leaders and commentators the jury is out. There are 30m premises in the UK and even taking account of Virgin Media's network, there is still a huge task ahead.
Money is not a barrier, but there are plenty of other challenges. Simply getting permissions to cross land to lay new fibre or erect wireless masts can be a nightmare. Legislation going through parliament addresses this problem, but will largely help get better connectivity into blocks of flats. Other challenges on the ‘barrier busting’ agenda include planning rules, streetworks permissions and costs. Government officials are working with local authorities, operators and trade bodies to try and solve these knotty issues that cross departmental boundaries (i.e. they are even harder to solve).
The Holy Grail for those deploying new networks is to build without digging up all the streets. Access to existing underground ducts and overhead poles can be a massive cost and disruption saver. Ofcom mandated BT / Openreach to open up its passive network to alternative providers and increasing numbers are making use of the resulting Passive Infrastructure Access (PIA) product. But it’s not all plain sailing. Often the existing network has blockages needing repair, or is already full. Coupled with cumbersome and slow ordering processes there is plenty to fix to make PIA truly scaleable.
Labour and skills issues are also high on the agenda for operators. Many of those working for civil engineering contractors are from the EU and the proposed, new immigration rules make no concessions for digital infrastructure.
Competition is yet another issue exercising Whitehall, industry and Ofcom. Policy and regulation are designed to back competitive investment by all players, with ‘overbuilding’ of networks in areas regarded as competitive being explicitly encouraged. However in rural areas it is unlikely that more than one network will be built in the near future. To date altnets in rural areas have been concerned about potentially predatory overbuild by BT, undermining their investments. However, the discussion is moving on with the topic of ‘underbuild’ - i.e. no gigabit capable networks - in more challenging areas. BT has stated publicly that it can‘t reach everywhere in the timescale and with others included competition rules should not prevent a degree of industry co-operation. This makes sense - the total investment will deliver further. However Ofcom has muddied the waters with its latest market review consultation, which envisages incentivising BT to deliver in areas currently regarded as non-competitive. According to Ofcom these make up roughly 30% of the country. The result is confusion about where independent investment can go and how competitive the Government’s Outside In scheme can actually be.
Alongside the debate about investment and competition, a challenge to the independent sector is the extent to which they are willing to open up their networks to third part service providers. In the early stages of new network build unless an operator has an anchor tenant they need to run their own ISP services to attract customers. Companies like Hyperoptic have built a successful business on that basis. However regulation and public funding pushes the sector towards wholesale access which increases consumer choice and brings larger brands into the marketing mix. In the past 2-3 years, for the first time, major service providers have started working with independent operators like CityFibre to utilise their networks. INCA is encouraging this shift and working on a programme to support wholesale access for a wider range of operators.
And then of course there is the whole debate about conditions for switching off the old copper network. A good topic for a future blog.
Malcolm Corbett is the CEO of the Independent Networks Co-operative Association
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