Broadband and Digital
Connectivity: Rural Areas
(Hastings and
Rye) (Con)
What steps he is taking to improve digital infrastructure and
connectivity in rural areas.
(Wakefield) (Con)
What steps he is taking to improve digital infrastructure and
connectivity in rural areas.
(Ashfield) (Con)
What steps he is taking to improve digital infrastructure and
connectivity in rural areas.
(Stoke-on-Trent South) (Con)
What progress his Department has made on the roll-out of gigabit
broadband.
(Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) (Con)
What steps he is taking to improve digital infrastructure and
connectivity in rural areas.
(Bolsover)
(Con)
What progress his Department has made on the roll-out of gigabit
broadband.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture,
Media and Sport ()
The Government are making huge progress on our ambition to
deliver gigabit broadband across the whole country. Only last
week, Openreach increased its planned investment target and it
has set itself a target of 25 million premises to connect in the
next five years. Some 40% of UK premises can already access
gigabit broadband, and we expect that to rise to 60% by the end
of this year. That is on top of the shared rural network
commitment that will see mobile coverage increase across the
whole country.
A number of rural areas have been recategorised as urban for the
purpose of broadband community vouchers. While the majority of
premises will retain their eligibility under the new voucher
conditions, premises in an area where Ofcom believes a
gigabit-capable network is likely to be built
commercially—including Ofcom area 2—will not be eligible for a
voucher. Does my hon. Friend agree that that lack of certainty
risks villages such as Three Oaks in my beautiful Hastings and
Rye constituency ending up being missed out? What steps can he
take to ensure that this cannot happen?
It is of course welcome news that a commercial roll-out will
reach more of the country than ever, but my hon. Friend raises an
important point. This Government will make sure that no part of
the country is left behind on that roll-out, which is why there
is flexibility in the voucher scheme that she describes and why
Project Gigabit is there to scoop up all the remaining premises.
I am happy to discuss the villages that she mentions in person as
well.
[V]
I am pleased to see the Government delivering on their pledge to
level up connectivity across the UK, including through the £1
billion deal to bring better mobile coverage across the country
and banish rural hotspots. That will greatly aid constituencies
such as Wakefield, which suffers from poor mobile coverage in
some rural areas. Will the Minister confirm that his Department
has already begun using this funding to improve mobile coverage
in rural areas?
It is good to see that working from home can provide a grander
backdrop than this place. My hon. Friend is right to welcome the
shared rural network. The roll-out has already started to benefit
a large number of constituencies. It began in Wales and we will
be talking in the coming weeks in much more detail about where it
is going to benefit in coming years.
Residents in the rural part of Ashfield suffer from a lack of
access to superfast broadband and feel that accessing it through
the community fibre partnership scheme is far too expensive. When
will areas such as Teversal in my constituency get access to this
much-needed service?
My hon. Friend is right to say that community fibre partnerships,
although they work well in some places, do not work well
everywhere. That is why Project Gigabit is so important; that £5
billion of Government money will be coming down the tracks very
quickly. We published plans in April and there will be more
detail in June, and Ashfield certainly will not be left behind.
Mr Speaker
. Not here. That is one down on his score.
Dr Poulter [V]
I thank the Minister for his helpful answers so far in response
to the substantive question. I want to ask him specifically about
access for homes in very rural areas, which have historically had
not much better than dial-up speeds. How will he help those
homes? In Suffolk, we have found that fibre-to-cabinet is not
adequate in improving broadband speeds in many of our more rural
parishes and villages. What will he do for very rural areas that
need better than fibre-to-cabinet?
The universal service obligation is a help in the situations my
hon. Friend describes, but of course we need to go further. That
is why the Government are consulting on what we do in the very
hardest-to-reach premises, and I look forward to talking more
about what satellites and other solutions can offer in the near
future. We have already seen some commercial roll-out, for
instance, from Starlink, and interesting work is being done by
OneWeb to make sure that absolutely no premises in this country
is left without the connectivity it deserves.
I strongly welcome the Government’s commitment to rolling out
faster broadband, but I constantly get letters from people in
parts of my constituency, such as Barlborough, Clowne, Heath and
Shirebrook, saying that the broadband connections are not good
enough. Will the Minister meet me to discuss those areas and what
more we can do to improve their broadband connections?
I am of course happy to meet my hon. Friend, but he will also
know that in the Project Gigabit plans that we have laid out
Derbyshire is very much already on that road map. That is good
news and I look forward to talking about it in more detail with
him.
Topical Question
(East Hampshire) (Con)
The shared rural network is a fantastic initiative. What good
news can we have for the notspots of Hampshire?
Yes, our £1 billion shared rural network is eliminating mobile
coverage notspots across the country, including in East
Hampshire. Operators have already announced the first 333
upgrades and 54 new sites in England. We will shortly be
announcing the next stage of the programme. Although I cannot
give full details now, I very much expect this to contain more
good news for my right hon. Friend’s constituents.
