In a video call to the Welsh Affairs Committee, Mears said that providing full fibre broadband to some of the most rural parts of Wales raises some questions over "value for money" and that alternative technologies would need to be explored as doing so could be 'prohibitively costly' said Richard Wainer, policy and public affairs director, BT.
At present and under the government’s Universal Service Obligation, customers a legal right to request broadband connections with download speeds of no less than 10Mbps, up to a cost threshold of £3,400. Customers requesting these new connections are required to contribute to cost of this broadband connection if it exceeds the £3,400 threshold.
Additionally, BT (and KCOM in Hull) are the Universal Service Providers responsible for fulfilling requests from eligible consumers, and of course Openreach is the infrastructure division of BT.
"When you look at that final half, or one per cent, the cost to connect, there is a price point. £3,400. The cost to connect is way in excess of any of that,” Mears told the Committee.
"I genuinely believe that we need to look at either alternative technologies, or consider, and there is a value for money question, how much we're prepared to pay to connect the final half or one%."
Wainer echoed these sentiments saying that of the approximately 50,000 homes in Wales without fixed line access to speeds a minimum of 10Mbps, close to 18,000 also did not have access to 4G and delivering such connectivity to these homes would be difficult.
"For these very hardest to reach premises, we are going to have to think creatively about how we serve them. Providing a fixed line, full fibre connection to them will simply be, I think, prohibitively costly,” he said.
"Where there are other technologies that may be able to deliver a decent service, then we should really be looking at them. Yes, where we can get full fibre as the gold standard for connectivity, we should absolutely be pushing that. But there will be, inevitably, a small proportion of places where that simply is not going to be viable. Where other technologies can play a role, we should absolutely be exploring those."
In response to the Committee meeting Michael Armitage, CEO of digital infrastructure provider Broadway Partners, said “We do not accept this short term view – to us, getting broadband into rural areas is simply a question of being able, with the right cost structure and technology solutions, and being willing, with the right priorities.”
“In rural Wales, we estimate that as much as 30% of the population has barely functional broadband, which can be severely disruptive to those who rely on it for not only for work, but also for access to healthcare and education. Sadly, these considerations are often ‘left behind’ by the larger broadband providers who may be missing the wider picture.”
