Just one year ago Grant Shapps MP visited Cumbria to celebrate how fast superfast broadband had been taken up in the county - yet has just published a scathing report about how poor coverage and speeds are.

Mr Shapps’ British Infrastructure Group (BIG) published the ‘Broadbad’ report, calling for BT to separate from Openreach, its infrastructure arm, in order to give more people access to superfast broadband.

BIG, the collection of 121 cross-party MPs that created the report, claims that 42 per cent of SMEs are having connection problems costing the British economy £11bn.

However BT has refuted such claims and hit back at several potential flaws in the report.

Parts of the report appear sloppy and hastily put together, with chunks of text pasted in different font and sizes, and Ofcom even referred to as “Openreach” in paragraph 20.

On his visit to Dalston last year, Shapps said: “It’s great to see the uptake in somewhere like cumbria really pushing ahead as well. We've got some of the best coverage if not the best coverage in Europe.”

Yet in the Broadbad report he mocks rural coverage, stating that: “ordinary people and businesses” are “lagging behind the rest of the country.”

In-Cumbria investigated the report’s criticisms, according to BT, many of which rely on dubious evidence and blatant inaccuracies.

Report criticisms 

In the report, Shapps says: “With the UK economy now so reliant on its internet infrastructure, this BIG report contends that our future is being held back by systemic underinvestment stemming from the ‘natural monopoly’ of BT and Openreach.

“The report concludes that the current situation is stifling competition, hurting our constituents and in the process limiting Britain’s business and economic potential.”

One of the most critical parts of the report states: “Since the functional separation from BT, Openreach has courted controversy, over-promising and under-delivering on pledges to improve speeds and service.

“It famously claimed in 2009 that 2.5 million homes would be connected to ultra-fast Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) services by 2012, which is 25 per cent of the country.

“Yet by September 2015 they had only managed to reach around 0.7 per cent of homes.

“This is just one example of Openreach’s inability to operate effectively under the current arrangements.

“In fact, Openreach have been so bad at hitting performance targets that Ofcom have had to introduce more regulations and standards requirements running against an original key Ofcom goal of moving away from too much micro-regulation.”

BT’s official response

"We take any criticism seriously but we think this report and its recommendations are misleading and ill-judged. 

“Independent data from Ofcom, the EU and others repeatedly place the UK number one for broadband and superfast broadband when compared to other large EU countries. “90 per cent of UK premises can already access a fibre optic broadband connection. That will soon climb to 95 per cent and above. 

“We understand the impatience for progress to be even faster, but improving broadband is a major engineering project that involves contending with all manner of physical and geographic challenges. 

“The idea that there would be more broadband investment if BT’s Openreach infrastructure division became independent is wrong-headed. As a smaller, weaker, standalone company, it would struggle to invest as much as it does currently.”

Inaccuracies and dubious evidence 

We spoke to a BT insider who gave us a blow-by-blow rundown of the report’s flaws.

1. 5.7m people can’t get the “Ofcom required 10 megabits per second”. 

Not true, according to BT, and no primary evidence is used. “There is no 10Mbps universal service obligation policy enforced by either Ofcom or the UK government. “The official figures measure broadband availability by ‘premises’ rather than people, because you can’t connect individual people to a broadband network. “These state that around eight percent of the UK (or 2.3 million premises) can’t receive a 10Mbps service today, meaning 92 percent can. “But thinkbroadband estimate that number has halved in the meantime meaning only four per cent are missing out “BT is still reaching new areas every day so it will reduce even further.” 

2. BT has received £1.7bn in subsidies but repeatedly failed to deliver. 

Again BT says this again cites no independent or primary evidence. “BT is independently audited for work on the government’s Broadband Delivery UK contracts, and has so far received around £700m. “If it continues to meet its targets, that will rise to around £1.5 billion in total. “It is currently on-track and under budget, and has even handed back £157m under ‘gainshare’ mechanisms built into each contract. “BT has also invested more than £3 billion of its own shareholders’ money into the national fibre broadband roll out.” 

3. BT is a “natural monopoly” that “severely restricts proper competition”  “BT has around 34 per cent market share"

BT disputes this and pointed out the following stats...

Official stats from Ofcom show: 

> At the infrastructure level, Virgin Media has a separate, competing network that covers more than half of the UK. It has announced plans to extend this to two thirds of the UK. >Meanwhile around 95 per cent of Openreach prices are set by Ofcom, which has led to intense competition at a retail level in the UK 

> More than 500 Communications Provider companies compete over our network and the UK is seen globally as one of the most competitive telecoms markets in the world. 

4. Copper is an “outdated technology” and other countries are pursuing an “all fibre” approach

 Critics say this shows how uninformed and misleading the report is. BT says: ”We are leading the world in research to develop G.FAST technology – and says it has proven can deliver ultrafast speeds (100s of megabits per second) over a mix of fibre and copper. “The Government’s leading advisory body – The Broadband Stakeholder Group – says demand from the heaviest users will be 41.1 Mbps by 2025. “Barely any countries are using a ‘pure fibre’ rollout. Even in New Zealand, where structural separation was imposed, they are using FTTC, radio and satellite in rural areas. “G.FAST will deliver ultrafast speeds in a timeframe and at a price that consumers are prepared to pay – FTTP to every home would take twice as long at an estimated cost of £30 billion.” 

5. Britain is lagging behind countries such as Japan, South Korea and even Spain 

This is unfair, according to our BT insider. 

“Some countries with smaller populations, huge tax-payer subsidies, higher retail prices or less challenging geographies can boast leadership on individual measures.

“But there are many independent studies which show the UK is amongst the global leaders when it comes to broadband."

1. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) – ranks the UK as having the fourth-best communications technology in the world 

2. Ofcom – puts the UK ahead of the 5 major EU economies for superfast broadband speeds, availability and take-up 

3. The EU – puts the UK ahead of the 5 major EU economies for superfast broadband speeds, availability and take-up 

4. Boston Consulting Group – says the UK has the largest internet economy in the G20 

5. Analysis Mason - says the UK will outperform other major European countries on a range of fixed telecoms measures for the next five years 6. The US Media Institute – Ranks the UK amongst five Global Broadband Internet Ecosystem Leaders in its ‘Net Vitality Index’

The full report can be viewed here.

Here what Shapps had to say about broadband speeds last year

Statistics published in the Broadbad report on Cumbrian internet speed.