Yesterday the UK government announced that it is pushing back its targets for the delivery of highspeed broadband by 2025. As we continue to embrace new digital ways to work and live, it is critical that homes have access to high-speed broadband and pushing this back a further 5 years is a huge concern.

If the UK wants to stay at the forefront of innovation, then ensuring high speed internet access is critical and the implications of this push back could have far reaching consequences.

The fact that 15 per cent of homes in Britain won’t have high-speed broadband in another five years is concerning, and could leave the UK tailing behind other nations’ ambitious connectivity plans. This year, in particular, has demonstrated how important connectivity is for people to stay connected, shop and work remotely to keep our economy moving.

Laying more fibre in the ground, required to deliver on the promise of highspeed broadband, also builds the foundations for 5G. Fibre is required to handle the immense amount of backhaul traffic that will be generated by the new connectivity standard.

If the UK wants to stay at the forefront of the digital economy, in must break down the barriers to delivering high-speed broadband. Incentives and initiatives from the government, and an ongoing review to ensure that networks are using the most effective equipment suppliers, are certainly ways to expedite the roll-out.