Broadband speeds to influence a fifth of UK voters

Broadband speeds are now so important that party policy on the matter will affect how we vote, a new survey suggests.

According to research carried out by Cable.co.uk, 18 per cent of us count broadband policy as a ‘key issue’.

Around 2,500 individuals took part in the survey, which found that voters want a baseline speed of 32Mbps.

That’s around 600 times faster than the figure that providers are currently legally required to supply.

Dan Howdle, the site’s editor-in-chief, said: “It’s likely no coincidence that the one in five households in the UK that are yet to have superfast broadband deals made available to them matches proportionately to those who say broadband will affect the way they intend to vote.”

“No doubt this is, in part at least, due to the fact that no party manifesto has promised to roll out superfast broadband to 100 per cent of households, and to a deadline acceptable to those whose homes, businesses and childrens’ educations are respectively isolated, diminished or stunted by poor connectivity.”

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The government is currently pledging that everyone in the UK will have 2Mbps internet connections by early 2016.

The Conservative Party wants speeds of 100Mbps to be available to ‘nearly all UK premises as soon as practicable’, as reported by the Telegraph.

Labour, meanwhile, hopes to deliver ‘affordable, high speed broadband’ to the entire UK by the end of the next Parliament.

The Lib Dems are looking to ‘complete the rollout of high-speed broadband, to reach almost every household (99.9 per cent) in the UK’.

The Green Party wants to force service providers to offer ‘affordable high-speed broadband-capable infrastructure to every household and small business’.