On Monday, Virgin Media challenged the PM's promise. Prime Minister David Cameron recently made a noise about bringing in a legally-binding Universal Service Obligation by the end of the current Parliament in 2020. 'Ofcom is working closely with the government and industry to meet these challenges and improve coverage for all internet users,' it said. The picture, however, will apparently remain bleak for some 18 per cent of SMEs by 2017 – even though, by then, 95 per cent of UK premises are expected to have access to faster broadband speeds. Around 130,000 SMEs are languishing on download speeds of below 10Mbit/s, according to Ofcom. Roughly half of small businesses in the UK are also hit by a lag in broadband connections.

This jumps to around half (48 per cent, or 1.5 million) in rural areas, where speeds are often affected by premises lying further from the network’s local street cabinet or local telephone exchange. Around 8 per cent of UK homes – around 2.4 million – are currently unable to receive broadband speeds of 10 Mbit/s or above. Ofcom has identified challenges in improving coverage across the UK. Broadband in rural areas has now reached 37 per cent of premises across the UK, with 1.1 million (almost four in ten) having decent connection speeds. It said that around 7.5 million (27 per cent) homes in the UK now have broadband connections with download speeds of at least 30 Mbps – a 1.5 million increase on 2014's figures.īumpkins are still struggling, however.

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