Event Report: Roundtable on Device & Data Access

On Wednesday 18th June 2025, the Digital Inclusion APPG held a roundtable session on “Device & Data Access”. The event was hosted and chaired by Officer of the Digital Inclusion APPG Lord Clement-Jones.  

Lord Clement-Jones opened the session by welcoming attendees and speakers in the room and thanking them all for attending. He noted that this session was the fourth event hosted by the APPG in 2025 after previous sessions focussing on regional approaches to digital inclusion, the Digital Inclusion Action, and, most recently, the issue of Skills and Will.  

Speaking to the second session on the Action Plan, Lord Clement-Jones commended the initiative and noted that a governmental plan or strategy had been on the APPG’s agenda as a recommendation since 2021. He did however note that elements of the plan require improvement and most importantly additional detail, so welcomed the fact it has a call for evidence section within it. He called on everyone in the room to challenge the Government to make the plan more ambitious and holistic through their various submissions. He said personally that he would like to see the plan consider making digital access a codified right and a wider rollout of the national device donation scheme.  

Speaking to the issue of data and device access, Lord Clement noted that 58,000 premises remain unable to access broadband - particularly in rural areas. He also added that 1 million households are unable to afford the digital essentials. On top of this, exclusion can have an extremely damaging impact on people’s self-worth, he added. 

Laying out the format of the session, Lord Clement-Jones noted that it would begin with two joint speeches by Nominet and Good Things Foundation and then by Virgin Media 02 and Jangala. After this, he added, the APPG would hear from representatives from BT, Virgin Money and Vodafone. After this, he said he would open up the floor for wider debate. He then passed over to CEO of the Good Things Foundation Helen Milner, and Head of Social Impact at Nominet, Chris Ashworth OBE.  

Beginning the joint speech, Helen added that the Digital Inclusion Action Plan should be viewed as an initial step not a fully-fledged plan. It was for this reason, she suggested, that APPG meetings like this, were vital to act as a forum to provide some additional colour to the existing plans. Despite suggesting the plan was limited in detail, Helen did praise Data Protection & Telecomms Minister Chris Bryant MP for being the first ever Minister to give a specific speech about digital inclusion at London Tech Week. She also said it was of crucial importance that the Government stuck to their commitment to roll out the plan in a cross-departmental manner.   

She added that at the Good Things Foundation, they work with thousands of local community groups and organisations to rollout their National Data Bank workstreams. As well as local partners, she said that Good Things Foundation have worked alongside key organisations such as Virgin Money, Vodafone and Virgin Media 02, to roll out their initiatives. The diversity in partnerships, she suggested, shows the vital importance of a cross-sectoral approach.  

To this end, Helen announced that, alongside Nominet, Good Things Foundation had published their new report titled “Tackling Data Poverty: Innovation and collaboration”. Thanking her colleagues Dr Sarah Knowles and Dr Emma Stone for their work drafting it, Helen added that as an overview, the report outlines the need to rebalance existing responsibilities in society for delivering digital inclusion initiatives. While, across the last 15 years, charities and businesses had pioneered on-the-ground work in the space, Government action had fallen behind, she said. With this Government, while there had been some positive first steps to with the Action Plan, she suggested more could be done. She finalised her speaking session saying that existing public sector leaders needed to utilise their powers more effectively. For example, she noted that initiatives like the Department for Work & Pensions’ Flexible Support Fund, while well-intentioned, remained based on location, not need. She then passed on to Head of Social Impact at Nominet, Chris Ashworth OBE to add further details of the report. 

Chris started his section saying that digital exclusion is an extremely complex issue to innovate on. He added that complex cultural differences and socio-economic factors made social and tech-based policy solutions tricky to implement in the space. This meant that most innovations don’t work effectively as they cannot tackle the wider, more complex social issues at play, he said.  

Exemplifying this, he noted that data poverty had already become a social issue – as well as a purely access-based problem. He added that while we have a select number of social levers to pull to reduce its impacts – such as policies to reduce inequality and boost the incomes of lower earners - there remains a window to act specifically in the digital inclusion space. Digital exclusion, he added, is not as intractable as a societal issue as for example, homelessness or food insecurity. Innovation, he suggested, is possible but only if policy reforms are radical.  

To achieve genuine change and fight against the barriers to inclusion, Chris added that the sector should embrace a diverse set of minds and experts. This could include data scientists, behaviour insights experts, and inequality researchers, he suggested. A more holistic group of solution-finders, he said, could create tangible shared goals for policymakers to focus towards.  

To this end, Chris added that the report is grounded in contextual ideas and examples. For instance, it argues that publicly run bodies and institutions who have a touchpoint with citizens in crisis (for example, GP practices) should be able to offer the National Data Bank as a service. More widely, he said the report also suggests that NHS Wi-Fi and eduroam in universities should join together to make a “super-federated” network across the public sector. Finishing up his section, he noted to the group that so called “innovation windows” don’t stay open forever and the group should push the Government to act immediately. He then passed the report around the room and welcomed any further input on it.   

Lord Clement-Jones then circulated the report and passed over to Managing Director, Head of Technology and a Founder of Jangala Richard Thanki and Community Programmes Manager at Virgin Media O2 Jade Baker to deliver their joint speaking slot. 

Richard Thanki opened his speaking slot stating that within his role as the founder of Jangala, his main goal is to get Wi-Fi access and devices into areas where they are most needed. This ethos and goal started over ten years ago in refugee camps, he added. Building on their experience interacting with communities around the world, Jangala had created two devices to help people get connected - called Get Box and Big Box, he said. Across the last ten years, these devices had connected more 100,000 people to the internet across the world. He said that this included some extremely remote locations including schools in Colombia, South Africa and Fiji. 

Speaking about the “Get Box” initiative, Richard said it had been designed to generate meaningful impacts among a diverse group of people. For example, in the UK, during the pandemic, Jangala were able to roll out their “Get Boxes” in temporary accommodation facilities and in schools. Given the extent of its rollout, he said the learnings from it should be used to help inform the Action Plan. For this, he said that utility and practicality are more important than internet speed when rolling out initiatives for those most in need. Even small amounts of funding could go far but only if it went towards ensuring a basic level of access, he posited.  

Speaking to their partnership with Virgin Media 02, Richard said that Jangala had been able to scale out the rollout of 5000 of their devices to people in the UK. Noting the overwhelming demand they’d had from eligible organisations, Richard added that they had worked with over one hundred delivery partners across the UK. As part of the partnership, he noted that there were still 1600 devices left to be distributed. Within this, he said that the main priority for the scheme would be to help older people who struggle setting up a fixed line contract. Overall, he said since the scheme’s rollout there had been some important success stories. Most notably, he noted that “Get Boxes” had reconnected families and and enabled online attendance at weddings around the world.  

He also added that the programme “Our Community Wi-Fi” - another project in collaboration with Virgin Media 02 – had enabled “Big Boxes” to be rolled out to support community initiatives, most notably in village halls and job centres across the UK.  

Lord Clement-Jones then asked Richard how much the unit cost of a “Get Box” is.  

Richard confirmed they cost £80 each.  

Community Programmes Manager at Virgin Media O2 Jade Baker opened her speaking section saying her company has a goal to connect one million people by the end of 2025. The work with Jangala, she said, is pivotal in achieving this. Initiatives like the National DataBank, and the rollout of the GetBox can have real-world impacts in helping people who really need it at a time when demand is increasing, she added. To this end, she said that  Jangala have a proven solution to increase access and connectivity both worldwide and in the UK.  

Given the growing demand for schemes similar to Jangala’s, and the fact that they have proven real-world impacts, Jade added that it should be vital to consider the level of governmental support that charities and community groups will need to sustain themselves in the long term.  

Lord Clement-Jones asked Jade and Richard, if they highlighted the potential of the Get Box programme during their response to the Action Plan consultation.  

Richard confirmed that they had.  

Joining virtually, Policy and Public Affairs Director, Markets and Customers at BT Daniel Wilson opened his speaking section saying that digital exclusion has a visible impact on employability, opportunity and health outcomes. Given this, digital inclusion had become a critical enabler for public sector savings, he argued.  

Speaking more widely, Daniel welcomed the Digital Inclusion Action Plan and suggested that its provisions around improving online infrastructure are a good step forward. He also said he welcomed how the Action Plan outlines the utility of private sector partnerships. Indeed, he then referenced figures which suggest that the industry on the whole had spent £320m on initiatives in last four years.  Daniel suggested that in a broad sense, the Action Plan had to have a multi-disciplinary perspective which engaged with policymakers and industry leaders. 

Daniel also stated that BT welcomed the Government’s initiatives in their Spending Review, most notably the confirmation that Project Gigabit will continue into the next Parliament. To match the Government’s commitments, Daniel confirmed that there would be up to 500 more sites to rollout BT public-Wi-Fi hotspots and confirmed that the Government was helping to identify potential locations. 

Speaking to the Spending Review, Lord Clement-Jones asked if there was any money allocated in it to rollout the Action Plan.  

Daniel said that there was not. He added that device and data poverty needed to be seen under the broader umbrella of income-based poverty. For this reason, he suggested that industry can only do so much to tackle the issue of data poverty and that government needs to do more to boost the incomes of the UK’s poorest individuals. 

Senior Adviser, Public Affairs at Virgin Money Piers Claughton started his contributions suggesting that leadership is vital in this area. As well as political leadership, Piers added that internal coordination within the industry is vital too. He added that, for example, the Consumer Credit Act consultation document should include a section about digital inclusion in it and called on industry to take a more holistic approach to engaging with policy. He also added that as an industry, there should be a jointly coordinated “vulnerable customer” list which the Government can have sight of and input towards.  

He also added that the Government cannot afford to ignore the links between financial and digital exclusion. Speaking to this, he said that the best remedies to digital exclusion will be those solutions which have physical spaces associated with them, so people “feel” more included. For example, he suggested that job centres should have national data banks attached to them across the country. He added that private companies – such as Virgin Money – should not be the only physical space in society to access affordable data.   

Government Affairs Manager at VodafoneThree Vanessa Higham said that as part of the merger, her company had committed to invest more than £1bn in a year in the national network. She also added that VodafoneThree would become the only mobile network operator with a fully funded, regulated and guaranteed network build plan, reaching 99% 5G Standalone population coverage by 2034. She confirmed too, that despite the merger, the company would continue existing support programmes and social tariffs. To enable these ambitious reforms however, she noted that she’d like to see more comprehensive investment in 5G infrastructure from the Government. 

Speaking to access specifically, Vanessa added that while infrastructure is of importance, on-the-ground access initiatives are necessary too. To do this, she said a comprehensive device donation scheme should be rolled out, in line with the plans outlined in the Action Plan. To this end, she said that VodafoneThree are working with ITV to begin a donation scheme. To organise plans like this, she said, better coordination and management were required from government officials.  

Chief Executive Officer at the Digital Poverty Alliance Elizabeth Anderson said she was delighted to be the partner selected by the Government to rollout the device donation pilot. However, thinking beyond the pilot’s plans, she said there should be a wider long-run and more sustainable initiative in place. To realise this, she said that there should be a focus on helping children and students in schools in the first instance.  

Head of 100% Digital Leeds Jason Tutin said his role connecting national charities and initiatives with local communities in need had to be factored into the Action Plan’s next steps. Arguing there should be a version of Digital Leeds all around the UK – connecting charities and communities – Jason added that the Government should look to increase the reach of local authorities in the space and make data banks more accessible.  

Digital Innovation and Partnerships Lead (Digital Policy/Cyber/Digital Inclusion) at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority Beena Puri agreed and said that while local initiatives can be transformative for their communities, the Action Plan needs to join the dots between them nationally and equalize delivery. She noted that the sector could learn from recent experiences with the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network ) switchover – and the lack of coordination associated with it. She added that local authorities didn’t know the logistics or timelines of the switchover, even as it was being delivered and emphasised that this could not happen with the Action Plan. Finally, she said that using the Minimum Digital Living Standard as a template, the Action Plan should work out the national basic level of what could be deemed the minimum amount of internet access necessary to live. This threshold could then be integrated into the plan and give it a sense of measurement to work out any potential geographical or societal gaps.  

Managing Director of Chatsie Bertsie Aspinall said that his company provides ultra-simple, text-based smartphones for individuals with limited experience of smartphone technology - often due to age or impairment. He said that their user base is largely made up of individuals experiencing data exclusion - typically with their first smartphone.  

He added that the APPG session had focussed heavily on Wi-Fi provision and said that more emphasis should be placed on the different types of data exclusion present in the UK. For many Chatsie users for instance, he said that a smartphone with a 4G/5G SIM card can provide the majority of their connectivity needs and that the remaining barrier is usually signal availability. Therefore, to better define data exclusion, he suggested to the group to think of three separate groups of users: Those with the skills but not the funds to access data/ or devices; Those with the funds but not the skills or knowledge; Those with neither the skills nor the funds.  

He said that a 4G/5G-enabled smartphone can meet the needs of all of these groups outlined. For example, he said that SIM cards can be pre-installed, removing setup complexity and the device can also act as a hotspot for other tools like tablets or laptops. He finished his section saying that smartphones, have a major role to play in bridging the digital divide.  

Director at Reconome Dave Williams added that Reconome had made significant progress over the past three years through their partnerships like the National and London Device Banks. With support from over 75 donors across the public and private sectors so far, he noted that they are on track to distribute more than 20,000 free devices to those in need by the end of this summer.  

However, he added that to meaningfully close the digital divide, hundreds of thousands of devices should be made available every year. The IT Reuse for Good Charter, as part of the Action Plan, is a landmark development in doing this, he said but noted that without strong central government backing, it risks remaining symbolic. He added that clear ministerial leadership is required to ensure that surplus public sector IT is directed towards digital inclusion efforts. The Government should see these devices as public assets and provide a duty of care to ensure their residual value or reusability is reinvested in the communities they were designed to serve, he concluded.  

Kat Dixon, speaking independently, highlighted elements of the recently released research report “Digital Lifelines: How Wi-Fi mpacts the lives of residents in temporary accommodation”, released by Jangala, of which she was lead researcher. She drew attention to the catch-22 faced by residents of temporary accommodation, whereby they need internet to apply for social housing (and other essential activities) but internet is often either not offered, of low quality, or only available in communal spaces. Without internet, residents cannot regularly bid for social housing, and they gradually sink down the waiting list, as this is interpreted as lack of interest, she added. She concluded that a lack of internet access therefore creates a downward spiral of inequality for many people in the UK. 

Lord Clement-Jones thanked the group and joint speakers for their contributions and said the discussion was on a vital issue that should be higher on all politician’s agendas.