The UK's broadband infrastructure remained resilient during the coronavirus crisis, absorbing the additional demand caused by the lockdown with negligible impact on performance. Ofcom data shows that download speeds decreased by 2% during the lockdown period, while download speeds decreased by just 1%. Movement and activity restrictions mean many people use their home connections for work, education, entertainment, and communication with friends and family they cannot physically see.
UK broadband blackout
This growing importance has resulted in a significant increase in data traffic and makes reliability paramount. Apart from a major outage from Virgin Media, the networks have remained largely resilient thanks to service providers taking steps to maintain and increase network capacity. "Broadband in the UK has really been put to the test by the pandemic, so it's encouraging that speeds have largely held up," said Yih-Choung, Ofcom group director for strategy and research. "It has helped people keep working, learning and staying in touch with friends and family." Ofcom has also published the results of its Connected Nations report, the data for which was collected before the coronavirus crisis. As of January 2020, 3.5 million properties could now access broadband fiber optic services, a figure that represents 12% of homes and businesses in the country. An additional 700,000 households can now access "ultra-fast" broadband services of 300 Mbps and above, bringing the share from 53% to 55%. Overall, average download speeds increased from 54.2 Mbps to 64 Mbps during the year, with download rates nearly doubling from 7.4 Mbps to 14 Mbps. Although urban speeds are still faster than rural connections, there have been some progress. More than half of rural properties (56%) now benefit from high-speed broadband, while the number of rural households and businesses unable to access a "decent" connection of 10 Mbps above has increased from 33% to 22%. However, thanks to the new universal service obligation (USO), these premises have the right to require such a connection. Mobile coverage remains static, but Ofcom expects a €1bn shared rural network, including funding and frameworks for operators to share infrastructure in hard-to-reach areas of the country. The country does things better.