Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the UK’s broadband speed ranking.

The average broadband speed in the UK rose by 18% last year according to Ofcom’s annual report, which is available here, and attached: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0038/194897/uk-home-broadband-performance.pdf. The average home speed is now 64Mbps, up from 54.2Mbps the year before. This was largely due to the growing availability and take-up of superfast and ultrafast full-fibre and cable services.

To improve broadband speeds, the government is committed to providing nationwide gigabit-capable broadband as soon as possible. Gigabit-capable connectivity can provide speeds of at least 1,000Mbps, and is reliable and future-proof. 26% of the UK (or 7.5 million) premises are able to access these speeds, and 16% of the UK has access to full fibre.

BT Openreach has a target to connect 20 million premises with full fibre by the mid to late-2020s, and Virgin Media has pledged to upgrade its entire network to gigabit-capable by the end of 2021. These initiatives will provide UK citizens with a world class, future-proof digital infrastructure system, as well as helping to drive the UK up the broadband speed table at the same time.