Virgin Media COO Jeff Dodds has praised UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s commitment to accelerating the rollout of gigabit-capable broadband across the country.
In his first speech on the steps of Downing Street after taking office, Johnson described the existing government target for nationwide full-fibre coverage as “laughably unambitious” and pledged to deliver gigabit broadband by 2025 — eight years earlier than the previous target of 2033.
Dodds welcomed the Prime Minister’s promise, particularly the increased funding intended to help meet the full-fibre goal. He also urged the government to simplify rules governing the installation of equipment on privately owned land and on certain buildings, calling the current system “quite cumbersome” and “not particularly flexible.”
Gigabit broadband is expected to unlock new opportunities nationwide and to provide a significant boost to the economy. “There’s a lot that Boris Johnson and government can do to make that process more streamlined and efficient for people wishing to invest and build out,” Dodds told PA.
He added that other measures, such as reviewing broadband business rates and taxation on infrastructure build-out, could help speed deployment. “If he wants to build faster, there are plenty of levers Boris has at his disposal to encourage people to get their speeds out quicker, including us,” Dodds said.
Virgin Media has committed to delivering gigabit broadband across its entire network by the end of 2021, a pledge that would bring ultrafast speeds — capable of downloading 4K movies in minutes — to nearly 15 million homes. “This upgrade plan will see gigabit speeds rolled out at an unrivalled pace right across the country, bringing our customers the future-proof connections of tomorrow,” said Lutz Schüler, Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Media.
Official data highlights the scale of the challenge. Ofcom’s Spring 2019 Connection Nations update showed that full-fibre was available to only around seven percent of UK properties at that time.
Ofcom Chief Executive Sharon White commented: “We welcome Virgin Media’s commitment to investing further in its network, providing gigabit speeds to millions more households. This shows the race to roll out ultrafast speeds to people and businesses across the UK is really gathering pace.”
Several companies have emerged focused on delivering full-fibre broadband, including Hyperoptic, Gigaclear, Truespeed, Giganet, and CityFibre. A CityFibre spokesperson welcomed the government’s renewed focus on full-fibre infrastructure and said the company was ready to work with ministers to achieve the 2025 ambition.
The spokesperson added that full-fibre connectivity is critical to enabling a new generation of services, catalysing innovation, promoting creativity, and supporting the UK’s economic and social development. Achieving the 2025 target will require bold steps, continued private investment from companies in a competitive market, access to skilled workforce, a proactive approach to removing local deployment barriers, and support to help consumers benefit from the change.
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