UK Introduces Law Making Gigabit Internet Access Mandatory for New Houses!

The UK government currently has rather lofty goals in terms of high-speed internet access. Put simply, by 2025 (at least under current plans) 85% of UK households should have access to Gigabit broadband. What exactly is Gigabyte though? Well, officially speaking, it should be representative of a download connection of 1,000 megabits or over. In order to successfully meet this goal, however, while it might have an official definition, the UK government has created their own notably vaguer standard of gigabit with it now simply being representative of a much looser, but still quite fast, ‘high-speed’.

With that being said, however, currently languishing with 45mbps down (a long way short of 1,000), I suspect that by the end of 2025, I’ll personally be within the rather sad 15% end of this figure. Well, presuming that the UK does hit its 85% target (press X to doubt unless they fudge the figures/definitions more).

Following an official Twitter post from the UK’s DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport), however, a new law should at least help see that 85% target potentially come along sooner. Namely, all new-built houses and apartments within the UK must now, by legal mandate, have access to ‘gigabit’ internet.

New UK Law Makes Gigabit Internet to New Homes Mandatory!

The introduction of this law is interesting for a number of reasons. Predominantly because it should clearly help the UK achieve its 85% target before the end of 2025. Not just in terms of new-built housing, but also in terms of bringing the infrastructure to existing areas which will adjoin these new developments.

This does, however, raise a problem in that what does the UK need more right now, housing or fast internet? Will this new law potentially raise problems with current and upcoming housing development plans? Possibly. – For me though, I guess its back to work on my circa 45-megabit connection. A speed, I daresay, I’ll still be ‘enjoying’ in 2030!

What do you think? How fast is your current internet connection? – Let us know in the comments!