Asked by Lord Fox To ask Her Majesty’s Government what
progress has been made in implementing the universal service
obligation for broadband. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of
State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Lord
Ashton of Hyde) (Con) My Lords, the Government have
considered different options for the design of...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made
in implementing the universal service obligation for
broadband.
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Lord Ashton of Hyde)
(Con)
My Lords, the Government have considered different options
for the design of the broadband universal service
obligation and have carried out a public consultation on
its proposed design. Having completed their consideration
of the many responses received, the Government will shortly
be laying secondary legislation setting out the scope of
the broadband USO. The Government’s response to the
consultation and the impact assessment will be published at
the same time. Ofcom will be responsible for implementing
the USO, which is expected to take up to two years.
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(LD)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his Answer. As he knows,
there is an awful lot of concentration on download speeds
but for the digital economy, upload is very important too.
It is particularly poor in rural areas, and your Lordships
do not have to take my word for it. The Secretary of State
for Defra, , speaking to the NFU,
recently said:
“It is unjustifiable … that broadband provision is so
patchy and poor in so many areas”.
Can the Minister explain how a new approach will do away
with this patchiness and poverty of connection in the
countryside?
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The noble Lord is right that it is very important, as the
rural economy as well as the urban economy depends on
broadband. We have done a number of things to support the
rural economy. Delivering the USO is one thing; we have also
increased broadband availability from 45% to 95% in seven
years, as we promised to do. But looking forward, we are
working with Defra to implement the £30 million of extra
funding through the rural development programme; the local
full-fibre network programme will invest £190 million for
locally led projects and the Chancellor announced £95 million
in the Spring Statement as part of that; the future telecoms
infrastructure review will also look at what the Government
can do and report in the summer. Noble Lords will also have
noticed that in February we signed an accord with the Church
of England to make many more churches available, which
principally helps rural areas. Lastly, Ofcom launched a
consultation on 9 March on potential new licence obligations
for rural coverage as part of a forthcoming 700 megahertz
spectrum auction.
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(Con)
My Lords, I welcome the £15 million that DCMS has given to
North Yorkshire in recognition of the woefully slow
connection times and poor connectivity there. But will the
department and my noble friend ensure that this money will be
used to make the remaining 5% faster and give them better
access, rather than to enable the fast speeds that people
already have in places such as Harrogate, Knaresborough and
York to become even faster than they already are?
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My Lords, we want to do both. We want to make sure that
everyone has at least a minimum speed, and we are also
investing very large amounts in full-fibre network, because
it is on fibre-optic cable that everything depends in terms
of mobile communications and higher speeds throughout the
country, including rural areas.
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The (CB)
My Lords, can the Minister explain why remote parts of
mountainous Norway and even remoter villages in China can
have high-speed broadband but we in the United Kingdom
cannot?
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There are mountainous parts of this country that have
high-speed broadband. It is a question of getting the
infrastructure in place. Broadband availability has gone up
from 45% to 95% in seven years because the Government and
local authorities, together with private industry, have
invested a substantial amount of money.
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(LD)
My Lords, the Minister mentioned full-fibre networks, which
could of course deliver ultra-fast broadband but only 3% of
consumers have access to them. Eighteen months ago, the
Chancellor promised £400 million towards full-fibre networks.
How much of that has been spent and how much is expected to
be spent in the coming months?
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My Lords, the Chancellor announced in November that the local
full-fibre network challenge fund was in place, which is part
of the Government’s £740 million national productivity
investment fund. As I said, the Chancellor announced in the
Spring Statement that £95 million has been allocated for 13
different areas. We plan to open the next wave of the
challenge fund during this summer.
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(Con)
Is my noble friend aware that his plethora of proposals is
greatly welcomed? Nevertheless, would he include in this the
servicing of broadband? Is he aware that following the great
chill of 1 March, certain parts of Bedfordshire still are not
back on broadband? Unhappily, that includes me.
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I am sure noble Lords will commiserate with my noble friend.
I am not aware of particularly why the cold weather should
affect broadband. The whole point of developing the
infrastructure for fibre-optic cables is that they are buried
underground, well below the frost, for example. I would have
to look at specifically what is happening near Naseby.
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(Lab)
Is the problem here not the completely hopeless, unambitious
target of 10 megabits per second when compared with what is
happening today? As reported in the papers yesterday, York
City Council has managed to install a system throughout the
city that operates at 1,000 megabits per second. There is no
competition, no drive forward, and nothing seems to be
happening.
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I have said in my answers so far that quite a lot is
happening. A lot of money is being spent on infrastructure.
The 10 megabits per second speed of the universal service
obligation is meant to be a safety net, which is there under
the universal service directive. It is not meant to be the
future of digital infrastructure, which is why we are
spending so much money on the latest fibre-optic cables. Ten
megabits per second will be very good for people who have one
or one and a half today. They will be very grateful for that,
but we certainly do not accept that it is the future. It is
very much a safety net.
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