Budget 2018: £200m for 'full fibre' for rural areas but nothing new on 5G

Chancellor Philip Hammond unveils Budget 2018 plan to drive fibre-to-the-home in rural areas

In addition to the Digital Services Tax, unveiled yesterday, Chancellor Philip Hammond also announced a number of initiatives related to fibre broadband in his latest Budget.

In particular, Hammond confirmed widely trailed news that the government planned to invest more in rural broadband, by announcing an extra £200 million to help bring ‘full fibre' broadband to hard-to-reach parts of the country.

The extra funding comes on top of government plans to deliver gigabit fibre-to-the-home, aka ‘full fibre', across the UK with connections to 15 million premises by 2025 and universal coverage by 2033 - with copper networking completely replaced by then.

The £200 million will come from the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF), which was established in 2016 with a remit to provide funding for national infrastructure considered critical for the UK's productivity.

In particular, the funding is intended to pay for ‘innovative' pilot projects in rolling out fibre in rural areas, and will be centred on primary schools. It will be supported by a voucher scheme aimed at businesses and households in the Scottish Borders, Cornwall and Wales.

The government is also planning to push for all new-build homes to have fibre connections as standard, and to extend rights to tenants renting their homes to be able to upgrade to full fibre.

However, there was nothing new on 5G, with 5G networks currently being rolled out, with the first commercial services expected in the UK next year.

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