AN INQUIRY has been launched into broadband coverage across the UK amid concerns that many households and businesses, even in some city areas, will never have access to adequate coverage.
The UK Government’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee is to look at the coverage, delivery and performance of superfast broadband.
The Government had said it aimed to ensure that superfast broadband was available to 95 per cent of UK premises by the end of 2017.
According to the committee, the challenge was now to extend that availability to the remaining five per cent, including services to the hardest-hit rural areas and pockets of poor connectivity in inner cities.
That percentage was dispersed across 70 per cent of the UK’s landmass, where lack of access was frequently made worse by poor mobile services.
Tory MP Jesse Norman, the committee chairman, said: “Proper digital connectivity is key both to the wellbeing of many communities and to Britain’s economic future.
“Yet many people and businesses are unable to receive the digital access and services they need.”
Earlier this year, the National Audit Office said the Government’s programme was on track to meet revised targets, with superfast broadband likely to reach 90 per cent of premises ahead of December 2016.
The Government has already intervened to improve mobile network coverage and Ofcom has included coverage obligations in network operators’ licences.
Last year, all four of the main mobile network operators agreed to a £5 billion investment project to improve mobile infrastructure in the UK by 2017.
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