Rejected petition Fund alternative solutions to provide better broadband to poorly connected areas

Having good broadband is vital but fibre cannot reach everyone. This is a major issue - Ofcom says there are over 500k properties that still can't get decent broadband (min 10 Mbps) via landline.

Funding must be provided to bring alternative broadband solutions to areas where needs are greatest.

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Project Gigabit aims to provide full fibre broadband to 85% of UK properties by end 2025 at a £5 billion cost, but much is being spent in high population areas with good broadband already. The USO is also no help to many of the 15% of UK homes & businesses left out.

Alternative solutions are low-cost & installable anywhere immediately. EG using 4G to level up all digitally excluded UK premises with life-changing better broadband would only cost £300 per property - just 3% of that £5bn spend.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

We can't publish petitions when the request is something that's already happening or something that has been announced since you started your petition.

We think your petition is covered by Government or Parliament action already. If you'd like something else, you could start a new petition clearly explaining what it is.

The Government's 'Project Gigabit' funding includes funding for alternative solutions to provide better broadband to poorly connected areas.

The Government has announced that a trial will see the extent to which satellites can be used to deliver high-speed connections to more than a dozen ‘very hard to reach’ locations: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/broadband-beamed-from-space-to-isolated-areas-under-plans-to-boost-countryside-internet-connections

We could accept a petition calling on the Government to increase funding that is available for alternative solutions to provide better broadband to poorly connected areas, if that's what you want to happen.

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 4 April 2023
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