Never mind 4G, the UK is moving on to 5G. At the Oxford Farming Conference, DEFRA secretary Michael Gove said: “If I can get reliable and unbroken mobile phone and internet coverage in a tunnel under the Atlantic as I travel between one Faroe Island and the next, I should be able to get it in Oxfordshire.”
In December, the Scottish Government pledged a £600m investment that is expected to deliver 100% superfast broadband to all of Scotland. The secretary for agriculture in Scotland, Fergus Ewing, also has connectivity under his remit.
Despite the EU’s ruling that all BPS applications must be submitted online this year, Scotland will waive that rule as it recognises the internet coverage is not up to scratch. A report from the UK Telecoms watchdog Ofcom last year stated that 1.1m UK premises (4%) could not access decent broadband. Last month, the UK government decided to make this a right of every citizen by 2020.
Will you get broadband in 2018?