Broadband and Mobile Coverage

Baroness Neville-Rolfe Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2014 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress is being made with the rollout of broadband and mobile coverage across the United Kingdom.

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble (Con)]

In October 2013, superfast broadband was available to 73% of premises—up from 46% in 2010. By the summer of this year, an additional 40,000 premises a week will have superfast broadband available to them. The aim is to reach 95% of premises by 2017. More than 99% of UK premises are covered by one or more mobile networks. All four mobile network operators are rapidly rolling out 4G mobile broadband.

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)]

My Lords, truly comprehensive broadband offers a unique opportunity to create a vibrant national market by increasing competition and access for small businesses and consumers and by helping economic development. I thank my noble friend for his answer, but can we be more ambitious and set a target date of, say, 2015, for achieving comprehensive broadband coverage and eliminating those “not spots”—a rather ugly new term—throughout the whole of the UK?

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, the UK broadband impact study found late last year that for every £1 the Government invest in broadband, the UK economy will benefit by £20. The broadband infrastructure will have a very positive impact on the growth of the economy and across communities within the country. Indeed we are ambitious. The Government have invested a further £250 million, in addition to the initial £530 million and, even more recently, £10 million in a scheme to reach out to the most remote areas.