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Digital Connectivity in Scotland

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Digital Connectivity in Scotland House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee Digital Connectivity in Scotland Fifth Report of Session 2017–19 Report, together with formal minutes relating to the report Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 18 July 2018 HC 654 Published on 23 July 2018 by authority of the House of Commons The Scottish Affairs Committee The Scottish Affairs Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Scotland Office (including (i) relations with the Scottish Parliament and (ii) administration and expenditure of the offices of the Advocate General for Scotland (but excluding individual cases and advice given within government by the Advocate General)). Current membership Pete Wishart MP (Scottish National Party, Perth and North Perthshire) (Chair) Deidre Brock MP (Scottish National Party, Edinburgh North and Leith) David Duguid MP (Conservative, Banff and Buchan) Hugh Gaffney MP (Labour, Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill) Christine Jardine MP (Liberal Democrat, Edinburgh West) Ged Killen MP (Labour (Co-op), Rutherglen and Hamilton West) John Lamont MP (Conservative, Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) Paul Masterton MP (Conservative, East Renfrewshire) Danielle Rowley MP (Labour, Midlothian) Tommy Sheppard MP (Scottish National Party, Edinburgh East) Ross Thomson MP (Conservative, Aberdeen South) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No. 152. These are available on the internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication Committee reports are published on the Committee’s website and in print by Order of the House. Evidence relating to this report is published on the inquiry publications page of the Committee’s website. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Ben Williams (Clerk), Laura-Jane Tiley (Second Clerk), Allen Gallagher (Inquiry Manager), Ben Rayner (Committee Specialist), Chloe Freeman (Senior Committee Assistant), Robert McQuade (Committee Assistant), and George Perry (Media Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Scottish Affairs Committee, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 8204; the Committee’s email address is [email protected]. Digital Connectivity in Scotland 1 Contents 1 Introduction 3 Our inquiry 3 2 Broadband coverage and availability 5 Current coverage in Scotland 5 Communicating broadband coverage 6 Enforcing speeds 10 3 How broadband is delivered in Scotland 12 Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband 12 Progress on broadband delivery 14 Future relationship 15 4 Broadband for the “final 5%” 17 Reaching 100% 17 Universal Service Obligation 18 10Mbps download speed 18 £3,400 cost threshold 19 Impact on consumer bills 20 USO and R100 21 Community broadband schemes 22 5 Full-fibre future 24 Funding 24 Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme 24 Competition in full-fibre delivery 26 Retail competition 26 Infrastructure competition 28 6 Mobile coverage 29 Mobile availability in Scotland 29 Coverage obligations 30 Improving coverage through infrastructure sharing 32 Passive sharing 32 Active sharing and national roaming 34 7 Reducing barriers to deployment 37 Cross-government approach 38 Conclusions and recommendations 40 Formal minutes 45 Witnesses 46 Published written evidence 48 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 52 Digital Connectivity in Scotland 3 1 Introduction 1. Digital connectivity has transformed the way people work, learn and communicate, and is an essential part of modern life. In 2017, 90% of households in Great Britain had internet access compared to 57% in 2006, and 73% of adults accessed the internet using a mobile, more than double the 2011 rate of 36%.1 Digital connectivity is also a driver of economic growth—the availability and take-up of faster broadband speeds is predicted to add £17 billion to the UK’s economic output by 2024.2 2. Scotland has seen improved broadband and mobile coverage over the past few years. Ofcom’s latest data shows that the area covered by 4G mobile services from all operators in Scotland increased by 76% between June 2017 to January 2018. The latest Ofcom figures for January 2018 showed that superfast broadband coverage (24Mbps)3 was at 91% in Scotland, compared to 87% in May 2017.4 However, despite improvements in recent years, Scottish mobile and broadband coverage is still behind the rest of UK with Scotland’s large rural landmass posing significant challenges: in 2017, 94% of urban Scotland had access to superfast broadband, compared to 56% of rural areas.5 3. Both the UK and Scottish Governments are committed to improving digital connectivity in Scotland. Telecommunications policy is reserved to Westminster; however, the Scottish Government has been responsible for designing and implementing the rollout of UK Government programmes in Scotland. The Scottish Government has developed its own policies to deliver broadband coverage as well as contributing funding to the UK Government programmes in Scotland. Our inquiry 4. During our “My Scottish Affairs” inquiry at the start of this Parliament, we asked members of the public to suggest topics for us to investigate.6 Digital connectivity was one of the areas that received the largest number of suggestions and we launched this inquiry in response to that feedback.7 5. We held six evidence sessions with 38 witnesses—including academics, coverage experts, community and business representative bodies, local authorities, broadband and mobile providers, and representatives from the UK and Scottish Governments. We had the highest level of written submissions for any of our inquiries in this Parliament, receiving over 120 contributions from people across Scotland—90 of which were from individuals and community groups. We are grateful to all those who have contributed. The graph below summarises the main issues raised in the individual submissions, several of which we consider in more detail in this Report. 1 Office for Nation Statistics, Internet access - households and individuals: 2017, August 2017 2 SQW Group for DCMS, UK Broadband Impact Study: Impact Report, November 2013 3 Broadband speed is measured in Mbps - megabits per second. The higher the number of megabits you are able to download per second, the faster the connection. Download speed is the most common measurement: it is the speed with which you can receive data over the internet. 4 Ofcom, Connected Nations update – Spring 2018, April 2018 5 Ofcom, Connected Nations, 2017 6 Scottish Affairs Committee, My Scottish Affairs inquiry, 7 June 2018 7 Full terms of reference can be found on the inquiry website. 4 Digital Connectivity in Scotland 37 24 23 22 20 19 18 16 14 14 13 13 11 11 10 10 10 9 9 7 6 5 5 5 3 3 2 1 Tourism no fibre Property Isolation - Businesses limitations - Access to services Poor mobile signal mobile Poor Support for altnets Cost of alternatives Copper Copper Cost of basic services Praise for BT's service support assupport alternative Distance from cabinet - community Misleading information Slow broadband speeds broadband Slow New properties Government slow slow progress Government Stakeholders working well well working Stakeholders Patchy broadband coverage broadband Patchy Lack of choice in rural areas in rural choice of Lack Complaints aboutComplaints BT's service Support for community projects for community Support Criticism ofCriticism satellite and wireless Support for satellite and wireless Limitations ofLimitations projectscommunity Different coverage Different within the same Poor communication fromPoor stakeholders communication Stakeholders not working well well together not working Stakeholders Mobile broadband Coverage Impact Cost Info Providers Technology Government Figure 1: Analysis of written evidence In this Report we consider: a) Broadband coverage issues and their impact on consumers in Chapter Two; b) The relationship between the UK Government and Scottish Government in Chapter Three; c) The options for delivering broadband to remote areas in Chapter Four; d) The transition to full-fibre technology in Chapter Five; e) Mobile phone coverage in Chapter Six, and f) The challenges of delivering telecoms infrastructure for providers in Chapter Seven. Digital Connectivity in Scotland 5 2 Broadband coverage and availability 6. Broadband coverage is a modern utility: according to Which? nine in ten people regard it is an essential alongside water, gas and electricity.8 However, over half of the people Which? surveyed said that they had had a problem with their broadband provider in the last year.9 During the course of this inquiry we heard from several individuals and community groups about the poor quality of coverage in their area and the impact this has on them and their communities, particularly as more public services are becoming digital by default.10 For example, Southdean Community Council said: Smart meters, mobile banking, downloading forms from the internet, emails, online planning applications, care of the elderly via digital services, are amongst examples of tasks that are easier elsewhere (some are impossible), and the lack of ability to properly participate in the digital age is leaving us increasingly disadvantaged.11 Current coverage in Scotland 7. According to Ofcom’s most recent data, 91% premises in Scotland have access to superfast broadband12 and ThinkBroadband’s latest figures show that coverage is now at 93.4% compared
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