The Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA) has highlighted new data from Point Topic’s UK broadband affordability tracker as helping to show that the “cost-of-living crisis isn’t getting any easier“, with a digital divide still existing that is allegedly “forcing millions to choose between broadband and food.”
First things first, most of our readers will no doubt already be familiar with the fact that you can often access cheaper and faster broadband services in areas of greater physical network competition and thus investment, which typically reflects urban cities and towns. Quite a few rural areas do have access to several competing networks too, but there are often fewer choices and a greater proportion of rural communities remain poorly served with slower connections.
For example, the most recent Connected Nations data from Ofcom (here) noted how gigabit-capable broadband coverage had reached 78% of UK premises by January 2024 (we’re due to get an update on this soon), but this splits down as 84% in urban areas and just 47% in rural areas. The regulator’s Communications Affordability Tracker similarly found that, in July 2024, some 24% of households “struggled to afford their communication services“.
Suffice to say that news of a digital divide is nothing new on these pages. The latest data from Point Topic plays into this a bit by aiming to identify the lowest available broadband subscriptions (‘entry level tariff’) that consumers can access in every postcode, irrespective of broadband technology.
As of November 2024, the lowest available broadband subscription at the postcode level varied from £12.50 to £37.50 per month (FTTP based in both cases). The £12.50 tariff was advertised by CommunityFibre as ‘Essential’ and came with 35Mbps symmetrical speeds on a 12-month contract. It was available in 50,589 postcodes, mainly in London.
However, at the other end of the spectrum, the cheapest broadband available in just two postcodes was £37.50 from Connexin, offering 250Mpbs symmetrical speeds on a 24-month contract (clearly this doesn’t cover every network, as B4RN’s 1Gbps service costs £33 in a fair few rural areas). But, compared to last year, it was found that cheaper broadband tariffs are more widely available across the UK, with the cheapest broadband subscription sitting in the £20 to £24.99 range in 66.3% of “small areas” (up from 31.6% some 12 months ago).
Elizabeth Anderson, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance, said:
“As a society, we view areas such as healthcare and education as ‘essential’, yet with these services being increasingly digitised, there remains a lack of affordable connectivity options, especially for those in rural areas. Having access to broadband is all well and good, but there must be a base level of affordability, reliability and connectivity as part of that to ensure that all UK citizens are able to get online.
The cost-of-living crisis isn’t getting any easier for people, and while for many it’s a case of cutting back on spending, it’s forcing millions to choose between broadband and food. A new entitlement, funded by VAT cuts on broadband and mobile bills, can deliver support to millions of households across the country by ensuring that all telecoms providers offer affordable, quality, social tariffs, helping to bridge the digital divide.”
Sadly, the DPA doesn’t provide any solid data to show what proportion of the population is actually making a choice between broadband connectivity and food, but it’s worth noting that this isn’t normally quite such a binary choice – there are many services that can impact the cost of living. Judging something like affordability is similarly difficult because we all have different levels of financial flexibility and different connectivity needs.
Once again, it’s worth remembering that the price we all pay for communication services is largely dwarfed by the hikes in energy (e.g. gas and electricity), petrol, food and other bills. If people are struggling to afford even a fairly basic internet or mobile plan, which doesn’t typically form a large chunk of household bills, then they’ve probably got much bigger concerns in those other areas.
Furthermore, when it comes to broadband, simply having access to an internet connection is something that tends to pay itself back in the value that it generates for end users. This comes from giving you access to compare product prices when shopping, online banking, job hunting, general knowledge and so forth. Put simply, internet connectivity usually saves you more money than the service itself costs to run, often a lot more.
Finally, it’s worth pointing out that the DPA has often called on the UK Government to help support ISPs to get more people in disadvantaged groups online, such as by cutting Value Added Tax (VAT) on broadband ISP and mobile bills to just 5% (currently 20%) – similar to other utility services. But so far there has been no serious push to actually deliver this.