Mark Jackson

Tuesday, Apr 22nd, 2025 (3:23 pm) - Score 440

The National Farmers Union, which represents over 44,000 Farmers and Growers in England and Wales, has warned that a good proportion of farms in rural parts of the country are still being excluded from the ongoing deployment of gigabit-capable broadband ISP technology – often even when the network covers the local road.

At the end of 2024 Ofcom revealed that gigabit broadband ISP networks now covered 84% of the UK (up from 78% in 2023), which falls to 69% for Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology. In terms of urban areas, some 88% can now access a gigabit network, but this falls away to just 54% for those in more rural locations.

NOTE: Project Gigabit aims to help extend 1Gbps capable (download) broadband networks to reach "nationwide" UK coverage (c. 99%) by around 2030 ( Project Gigabit aims to help extend 1Gbps capable (download) broadband networks to reach "nationwide" UK coverage (c. 99%) by around 2030 ( here ).

The disparity in coverage typically reflects the fact that, up until now, most of the deployments have predominantly been fuelled by commercial builds – these tend to target the easiest and cheapest areas (i.e. urban locations, where networks can reach lots of premises over a shorter distance).

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On the flip side, rural areas tend to be last on the list to be upgraded, which is due to the economic challenges of building expensive networks to cater for so few users over a wide area. Suffice to say, rural builds can often be several times more expensive to deliver, which is why public investment (e.g. Project Gigabit) is often needed to help finish the job.

Now a new report on the BBC News, which focuses upon the issues in Derbyshire that the NFU have recently raised (although this is very much a national challenge), appears to have homed in on a particular issue where network operators need to "dig trenches to install [fibre] individually to each home or business premises".

Andrew Critchlow, NFU County Advisor, said: "The cost is higher for them (telecoms companies), so installing into one property is no where near as cost effective as when they are doing multiple properties and I think that's why they (remote properties) get dropped off in these schemes."

One of the difficulties here is a lesser-known issue that crops up when homes and businesses exist too far away from the new fibre, which in some cases may already be passing down the local road (this usually applies if the property is over 100 metres or so away from the fibre). This can result in some areas appearing to be covered, when in fact getting connected could attract a significantly higher cost due to excess construction charges.

Such issues are naturally much more likely to occur with remote rural farms, where there could be a lengthy farm track between the main road and the farm building(s). Farmers could potentially help to tackle this by digging their own trench. But that requires some coordination with the network operator, and such things aren't always easy or quick to arrange.

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A spokesperson for Openreach responded to highlight how they had already delivered FTTP to more than 339,000 premises across Derbyshire and understood the frustrations of such properties. "We continue to work closely with Digital Derbyshire (the council led programme) and UK government on reaching more areas," said the operator.

Some locations like this may alternatively be able to pursue a 4G or 5G based mobile broadband connection, although the coverage and performance of such networks in remote rural areas can be a problem for those operators too. Satellite based solutions, like Starlink from SpaceX, may be another option, but that's more expensive and not something that cash strapped farmers can always afford.

The National Farmers Union, which represents over 44,000 Farmers and Growers in England and Wales, has warned that a good proportion of farms in rural parts of

The National Farmers Union, which represents over 44,000 Farmers and Growers in England and Wales, has warned that a good proportion of farms in rural parts of the country are still being excluded from the ongoing deployment of gigabit-capable broadband ISP technology – often even when the network covers the local road. At the end […]

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