The national fibre programme has reached half of the rural districts in its target list, though the proportion of households actually connected remains well below the proportion now able to connect.
The programme measures progress by districts passed, meaning that infrastructure reaches a point from which individual premises can be connected on request. Roughly a third of premises in completed districts have taken a connection.
The gap between passed and connected
Operators attribute the gap partly to installation scheduling and partly to price, since the entry tariff for fibre sits above the copper service it replaces in most districts. A subsidised tariff exists but applies only to households already receiving specified support payments.
A second factor is awareness. Surveys commissioned under the programme found that a substantial minority of households in completed districts were unaware that fibre had become available to them.
Passing a district is an engineering milestone. Connecting it is a commercial and communication problem, and those move at different speeds.
Remaining districts
The districts still outstanding are on average more dispersed, and the cost per premises passed rises accordingly. The programme has revised its per district cost assumptions upward twice, most recently at the last quarterly review.
Officials maintain that the overall completion target remains achievable within the current timetable, while noting that the final tranche of districts will require either additional funding or a revised technical approach in the most dispersed areas.
