Monday, June 12, 2023

UK SFA Broadband Boost

Better broadband is on the way for military personnel and their families. Teams across Defence have already improved broadband speeds and reliability for Service Family Accommodation (SFA). 

Working hard with industry partners, they’re ensuring everyone has access to high quality broadband. 

How can SFAs report a slow download speed issue?

We’re still making improvements and need your help to deliver the best service. If you’re a resident in SFA and suffer from poor download speeds, we’d like to know.

 Please take a screenshot of your speedtest and let us know the time and day of the reading. Send this to ukstratcomdd-cis-fc-brdbnd@mod.gov.uk.
Broadband boost for military staff and their families

Better broadband is on the way for military personnel and their families. Teams across Defence have already improved broadband speeds and reliability for Service Family Accommodation (SFA). Working hard with industry partners, they’re ensuring everyone has access to high quality broadband.

Front Line Commands (FLCs), Defence Digital (DD) and the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) are driving improvements. 97% of SFA now has access to a high quality Wi-Fi network - that’s up from 79% a year ago.

Good broadband is no longer just a nice-to-have. It’s now recognised as key to the welfare of our people. Defence is determined to provide access to modern, reliable, and secure broadband that’s cost-effective for military staff and their families.

Initial studies showed that at the start of last year 15,000 of our 48,000 Service Families Accommodation were considered ‘disconnected’ ⁠— unable to satisfactorily connect to or use the internet consistently. That had to change. In under a year, a small, agile DD and DIO team, supported by the FLCs, successfully increased SFA access to better broadband, which is now at 97% coverage.

A huge achievement - however there is more to do. The FLCs, DD and DIO continue to work with industry to develop solutions. Plans are in place to connect the remaining houses and get all Defence SFAs better broadband by 2025/26 at the latest.

Defence Chief Information Officer (CIO) Charlie Forte said:

“In this digital age where access to the internet is vital to the way our people live their lives, it wasn’t acceptable for so many to be disconnected. We were determined to make a real difference. The team have worked at pace with a wide range of industry and defence partners. We’re ensuring military personnel and their families have a service that looks and feels as close to a civilian, home broadband service as possible. As a result of our efforts, 46,400 SFAs are now connected, with the remaining 1,600 planned for completion by 25/26 latest.”

DIO Head of Accommodation, Air Commodore James Savage said:

“Having high-quality broadband is crucial in this day and age. It can make a real difference to the lives of our Service personnel and their families. We’ve worked incredibly hard with our suppliers and partners to improve the quality of broadband for our service families. I’m very proud of the work we’ve achieved in just under a year.”