Why Full Fibre is essential if we want to meet the UK's gigabit-broadband targets
The UK has some ambitious plans for bringing gigabit-capable broadband to homes across the country. During the first speech of her short run as leader of the country, Liz Truss famously said, ‘We will make sure we build hospitals, schools, roads and broadband’. This suggested she was very much behind the target set in 2020 of delivering gigabit-broadband to 85% of homes in the UK by 2025.
The current Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is also known to have supported the Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout, giving hope that the change of leadership won’t slow down the push to hit targets.
The Government has even set up a voucher scheme to help the UK hit the proposed targets, aiming to incentivize people in rural or slow-broadband areas join the world of fibre broadband. Swish have won several opportunities to be part of this scheme within some of the towns on our network.
But how can we, realistically, meet the goal of 85% of the UK having access? Full Fibre broadband may play a key part in hitting this goal.
How Full Fibre can help the UK meet broadband targets
Full Fibre broadband, like that offered by Swish, is unique because it uses fibre optic cables for the entire network, right up to each premises. This is different from many other providers who only provide part fibre broadband, meaning fibre optic cables are used to connect broadband to the street but the final part of the network to the premises is completed with old copper cables, leading to a slower and less reliable connection.
The key issue here is that Full Fibre offers users a future-proof broadband network (not to mention one that is faster and more reliable). By joining a Full Fibre network homes completely remove themselves from the old copper network, meaning they will not have to upgrade again when the copper network is switched off – something that will be happening across the UK in the coming decade.
This gives homes far more incentive to connect to a broadband network. The knowledge that they won’t have to have their home visited by engineers regularly or have roadworks on their street again is a great motivator to upgrade to faster broadband.
The advent of super-fast Full Fibre broadband can also help people literally change their lives. Working and learning remotely is now possible thanks to stronger, more reliable connections. Starting a business from your own home is no longer hit by barriers of a slow internet connection disrupting your work.
As more people become aware of the advantages of Full Fibre, the amount of people joining fibre broadband networks will increase, taking the UK even closer to our national targets.