Gigabit broadband: Watered-down plans a 'kick in the teeth'

Gigabit broadband: Watered-down plans a 'kick in the teeth'

Ambitious plans to roll out gigabit-speed broadband to every home in Britain by 2025 have been rolled back in Chancellor Rishi Sunak's spending review.

Now the aim is to have a "minimum of 85% coverage" by that date.

It will come as no surprise to industry watchers, who felt the target was unachievable.

The budget for the plan remains the same - £5bn, although the figure for next year's spend is much lower.

Now only £1.2bn of that £5bn will be made available up until 2024.

The National Infrastructure Strategy document said it will "seek to accelerate roll-out further to get as close to 100% as possible".

It is expected that commercial deployments of gigabit-capable fibre networks will reach more than 70% of premises by the end of 2025 anyway, without government intervention.