A significant proportion of internet connected consumers in the United Kingdom (43.5%) have told ISPreview that they don't think the Government's aspiration for extending Fibre-to-the-Premises broadband to every property by 2033 is achievable, but they do support it.
On top of that, 80% said they would support the Government if it needed to invest several billion pounds (GBP) of additional public funding in order to deliver on the 2033 goal, which under the plan would be mostly used to help connect-up disadvantaged rural areas.
Similarly, 77% agreed that the current five year business rates (tax) holiday, which makes it cheaper for operators to deploy new fibre optic cables, should be extended beyond its current end date in order to support the 2033 target.
Mark Jackson, ISPreview.co.uk's Editor-in-Chief, said: "The United Kingdom currently only has 'full fibre' coverage of around 4% and this is behind almost every other country in the EU. The Government's proposed plan to correct this is ambitious but it would require a huge ramp-up in civil engineering (i.e. adding around 2 million additional FTTP premises to the national coverage every year for the next 10-15 years).
"At present, the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR) proposals are merely an unfunded aspiration, but they do provide for a good foundation and one that should do a lot to facilitate future deployments. Nevertheless, the Government will eventually have to put a big scoop of public funding on the table in order to stand any chance of delivering on their aspiration and until that happens then people are right to be sceptical. But on the whole, most of our respondents appeared to support the current direction of travel."
