The Broadband Manifesto — The missing policies

It’s election day! Please go out and vote. You have until 10pm when the polls close.

A couple of weeks ago we published a summary of the manifesto policies relating to broadband for the major parties, and what was quite consistent was the lack of any detail on how broadband fits within each of the parties’ plans if they were to govern for the few years. To some extent this may be as the work to delivery the best broadband is already under way, and there’s universal acceptance of its importance, however we wanted to highlight what we think could have been considered by all the parties, and something we hope the new government and ministers will consider.

Planning

1. Tougher Regulation on Infrastructure Sharing – Ensure that all unnecessary duplication of infrastructure is avoided with greater infrastructure sharing like Openreach Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA). This should be available nationwide across other operators, such as Kingston Communications in Hull. This should minimise unnecessary and unsightly cabinets and poles as well as additional disruption to residents.
2. The Right to Broadband Connectivity & Choice – Every household and business in the UK should have the right to Gigabit Broadband connectivity, as well as a choice of suppliers. Often freeholders are obstructive to multiple providers enabling their building in a commercially viable way; freeholders should be required to ensure that any infrastructure provider is able to gain access to run cables to properties on-site, complying with reasonable standards, or using shared infrastructure where it exists, but without payment to freeholders’ commercial gains.
3. Ensuring the public is listened to – Ensuring a consistent process for installing infrastructure such as poles, giving residents a say in how these are rolled out. This must be efficient and not cause undue cost or delay. Residents should not be able to obstruct the rollout of infrastructure but should be able to have a say on the location of poles and objects where providers are installing multiple poles or overly intrusive ones or where providers are not using existing ducting which is already available and suitable. Often moving a pole or cabinet a few metres is all it takes.
4. Planning for Data Centres and Fibre Exchanges – Support so that firms can build data centres where it makes sense, such as near suitable power infrastructure, with the ability to use excess heat for benefit of the community and access to fibre optic connectivity.

Broadband

1. Accelerate Full Fibre rollout – Provide funding and coordination for getting full fibre to the areas of the UK least likely to see it commercially. Review voucher schemes to ensure they are effective.
2. Broadband price rises – No in-contract price increases should be permitted. Ensure wholesale services are covered by the same restrictions as retail services. Existing RPI/CPI+X% rise models are a challenge to consumers who aren’t able to hedge based on economic predictions. Whilst these types of price increases are set to be phased out, if inflation stays low, next year we may see price increases simply expressed in numeric £x/month increases; however, these could still hide significant increases. Unless these can be clearly justified, more work should be done to control increases.
3. Ban all door-step sales for broadband – With One Touch Switching on the way, which could bring 24-hour switching, there is a prime area for the public to be misled by hard sell tactics. Consumers often feel vulnerable when dealing with someone in front of them. We have seen many examples of at-home sales exploiting the vulnerable. Although this kind of tactic may also happen by phone, if calls are recorded, this could be used to retrospectively analyse any abuse and is easier to regulate.
4. Maximum Contract Length – Reduce the maximum length of residential broadband contracts to 12 months. Companies should ensure customer loyalty through excellent service and competitive products. This would be one of the easiest policies to implement, and would reverse the trend from the big providers for longer contracts such as Sky did recently. This could also be extended to pay TV services to encourage competition and value delivery.
5. Digital Voice – The phone line equivalent of the digital TV switchover has been plaguing many with old systems, such as alarm pendants for the elderly, which require replacement or other adaptors to continue working. No one in a contract for such services should be forced to pay more for an IP-capable service and monitoring should be in place to ensure new technology is not used to increase costs to the vulnerable to increase profits through obsolescence.

Digital Economy

1. Security for business – We are seeing the largest companies in the UK and the public sector fall victim to ransomware and hacking attacks. Better resources must be made available, particularly to the smallest businesses, to be able to thwart these as they risk causing real economic harm as well as personal loss to victims whose data is lost. Any frameworks should put increased demands for larger businesses in all sectors.
2. Mobile – Although improving, mobile phone coverage is still patchy in areas, even in urban areas where some networks perform better than others. Mobile operators should be required to provide wholesale services to each other in such ‘not-spots’ or ‘slow-spots’ at an above-market rate which encourages infrastructure investment by mobile operators, and which penalises those who are willing to allow weak coverage on their own networks.
3. Home Care / Virtual Wards – With the increasing elderly population, it is both financially better for the public sector, and in the interests of many individuals, for everyone to be able to remain in their own home as long as possible while is is safe to do so. Fund and ensure the NHS and Social Care teams have the resources to provide devices that can support individuals at home (e.g. sensors to detect movement, accidents, etc.)
4. Research – Fund university research and start-ups to push the technology envelope to explore what is possible to promote social well-being and efficient use of services by the public. Look at backing ‘social tech’ ventures. Encourage firms to pursue R&D activities in the UK.
5. Education – Provide better education resources to:
   1. children that is age appropriate so they can understand the Internet and its opportunities and dangers;
   2. parents to fully understand the tools available to them to ensure their children remain safe online;
   3. the public in general to help them understand the nature of scams online and general computer/Internet knowledge.