The project was launched in 2021 with the goal of providing hard to reach communities with high-speed gigabit-capable broadband. 

Now, with 18 months left to reach the target goal of reaching 85% of UK properties, National Broadband finds that a majority of the funding has been going towards easier and cheaper-to-reach areas, in order to reach the target on time. 

As it stands, Scotland has been allocated just £28.5 million from Project Gigabit, but yet to receive the funding. This is despite the fact it is the worst region in the UK for broadband connectivity, with over 60,000 residential properties unable to hit speeds of 10Mbit/s.

Other regions left without funding are Wales, Northern Ireland, the East Midlands, Yorkshire and London. National Broadband points out that only one in ten of the local authorities with the worst broadband connectivity received any funding. 

“Full fibre connectivity is being funded for properties that already benefit from perfectly good broadband performance, while properties in more rural and harder to reach areas which are typically those suffering with the poorest landline broadband speeds are being excluded,” said David Hennell, Director at National Broadband.

While much of the UK is left in the dark, South East England has already landed over £290m, East England £283m, and North West England £108m. Project Gigabit still has not fully allocated its £5bn budget. 

Moving forward with the project, National Broadband suggests Project Gigabit could refocus away from solely full fibre, to 4G broadband. According to them, 4G would quickly improve connectivity for the most disadvantaged. 

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National Broadband calculates that using alternative technology like 4G could provide a much faster connection to all 435,000 properties currently lacking access to speeds above 10 Mbit/s at a cost of less than 3% of Project Gigabit’s total budget.

Hennell said: “There’s a growing disparity between digital haves and have nots in the UK and, as Project Gigabit fails to address more remote and more difficult to provision areas, this digital divide will only get worse.

“Far too many rural communities are still endlessly waiting on the distant promise of full fibre broadband – and yet the Government is failing to fund alternatives which exist today and which would immediately dramatically improve people’s connectivity at the fraction of the cost of fibre.”

“It’s vital that the Government expands its view on improving connectivity and that’s why we’ve launched our petition. Otherwise the pursuit of its self-set target to provide 85% of UK properties with gigabit broadband will actually widen rather than close the digital divide that persists in the UK.”