Which? response to DSIT's Digital Inclusion Action Plan 2025

Summary

• DSIT has defined ‘digital inclusion’ as ‘ensuring that everyone has the access, skills, support and confidence to participate in and benefit from our modern digital society, whatever their circumstances’, and the Digital Inclusion plan includes a focus area on 'device and data poverty'. Which? recommends three priority areas for the govt: connectivity, affordability, and consumer understanding of telecoms markets.

• When connectivity is unreliable or unavailable, this creates a significant barrier to digital participation - a digital disadvantage.  DSIT have an immediate action in the Digital Inclusion Action Plan to make digital services easier to use and are focused on breaking down barriers to digital exclusion. The lessons of the PSTN switch off, such as lapses in telecare and connectivity causing serious incidents, must continue to inform planning and delivery with respect to mobile network migration away from 2G and 3G.

• Affordability is a barrier among 17% of consumers who identify costs relating to broadband and devices as a reason for why they were not online. Providers should be doing much more to promote social tariffs, especially for consumers in debt to their providers. A renewed effort is required from communication providers (CPs), Ofcom and the government to actively promote social tariffs. Faced with difficulties in understanding different elements of a package, consumers will often opt for a connection that is greater than their usage needs, which impacts the price that they pay. Affordability issues can be exacerbated when communications providers use unfair pricing strategies. Which? Research examining inflation-linked price variation terms found that only one in twenty consumers was able to accurately predict the level of price increase they would face. 

• DSIT should work with Ofcom, communication providers, consumer groups, and civil society to consider the role of consumer information to improve understanding of connectivity markets among digitally excluded consumers. In its efforts to tackle data and device poverty, the government should investigate the enforcement of consumer protection regulations by Ofcom and work with the regulator to monitor the disproportionate impact on some consumers relative to others.