Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to attract, and (2) to incentivise, Open Radio Access Network suppliers to establish an operational base within the UK.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government continues to work with mobile operators and suppliers to build an open, flexible, and diverse telecoms supply market, following the recommendations of the Diversification Taskforce, published on 20 April. The Taskforce recommendations are helping to guide our approach to delivering the Diversification strategy, including its core pillar of accelerating the development and deployment of interoperable solutions, such as Open RAN, into the UK’s 5G network.
Our engagement with both operators and suppliers continues to be constructive and we are delighted with moves made by industry so far that support our aims. The announcement of numerous Open RAN R&D facilities in the UK is a positive sign that our direction of travel is the right one, and we are working at pace to develop targeted actions to ensure that interoperable technologies are ready to deploy in more resilient network infrastructure. The Government is designing a programme of targeted R&D support, building on existing Open RAN trials, such as the SmartRAN Open Networks Interoperability Centre (SONIC), to level the playing field for smaller suppliers, and we continue to consider all options. This will need to support performance demonstration, such as with large-scale urban trials, as well as product development and testing.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to invest in large-scale urban Open Radio Access Network trials in 2022, in order to assess whether Open Radio Access Networks can be successfully deployed in a dense urban environment.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government continues to work with mobile operators and suppliers to build an open, flexible, and diverse telecoms supply market, following the recommendations of the Diversification Taskforce, published on 20 April. The Taskforce recommendations are helping to guide our approach to delivering the Diversification strategy, including its core pillar of accelerating the development and deployment of interoperable solutions, such as Open RAN, into the UK’s 5G network.
Our engagement with both operators and suppliers continues to be constructive and we are delighted with moves made by industry so far that support our aims. The announcement of numerous Open RAN R&D facilities in the UK is a positive sign that our direction of travel is the right one, and we are working at pace to develop targeted actions to ensure that interoperable technologies are ready to deploy in more resilient network infrastructure. The Government is designing a programme of targeted R&D support, building on existing Open RAN trials, such as the SmartRAN Open Networks Interoperability Centre (SONIC), to level the playing field for smaller suppliers, and we continue to consider all options. This will need to support performance demonstration, such as with large-scale urban trials, as well as product development and testing.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the publication of the report from the Telecoms Diversification Task Force on 20 April, what plans they have (1) to incentivise, and (2) to encourage, UK Mobile Network Operators to invest in Open Radio Access Networks.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government continues to work with mobile operators and suppliers to build an open, flexible, and diverse telecoms supply market, following the recommendations of the Diversification Taskforce, published on 20 April. The Taskforce recommendations are helping to guide our approach to delivering the Diversification strategy, including its core pillar of accelerating the development and deployment of interoperable solutions, such as Open RAN, into the UK’s 5G network.
Our engagement with both operators and suppliers continues to be constructive and we are delighted with moves made by industry so far that support our aims. The announcement of numerous Open RAN R&D facilities in the UK is a positive sign that our direction of travel is the right one, and we are working at pace to develop targeted actions to ensure that interoperable technologies are ready to deploy in more resilient network infrastructure. The Government is designing a programme of targeted R&D support, building on existing Open RAN trials, such as the SmartRAN Open Networks Interoperability Centre (SONIC), to level the playing field for smaller suppliers, and we continue to consider all options. This will need to support performance demonstration, such as with large-scale urban trials, as well as product development and testing.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to publish the criteria for bids for the UK City of Culture 2025; when they expect (1) bidding cities to return expressions of interest, and (2) to announce the winning bid; and what plans they have to commit to having a UK City of Culture in 2029.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The UK City of Culture competition is a flagship DCMS programme and a proven model for using culture and creativity to regenerate and transform places. We want to continue to harness this power, especially as places across the UK plan for their recovery from Covid-19. We are currently in dialogue with the devolved administrations and expect to publish the criteria for bidders in the coming months. Subject to the launch date, we anticipate a timetable that will ask places to return expressions of interest towards the middle of this year, and to announce the winning bid at the end of Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture in May 2022. UK City of Culture has been a quadrennial process since 2013 and any announcements about future competitions will be made once the 2025 competition has been confirmed.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department has taken to bring forward the legislation required to secure the renewal of analogue FM and AM commercial radio licences simulcasting on DAB.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The government supports a strong and vibrant radio sector and we fully recognise the important role that both national and local commercial stations broadcasting on analogue (FM and AM) frequencies and on DAB play in providing the widest possible choice for listeners.
The first of the analogue commercial radio licences renewed by Ofcom under the Legislative Reform (Further Renewal of Radio Licences) Order 2015 will start to expire in early 2022. We plan to consult on the options of a further renewal of these licences as soon as possible.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans her Department has to publish a timetable outlining the steps required to secure secondary legislation in order that analogue FM and AM commercial radio licences simulcasting on DAB will be uninterrupted before they are due to expire.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The government supports a strong and vibrant radio sector and we fully recognise the important role that both national and local commercial stations broadcasting on analogue (FM and AM) frequencies and on DAB play in providing the widest possible choice for listeners.
The first of the analogue commercial radio licences renewed by Ofcom under the Legislative Reform (Further Renewal of Radio Licences) Order 2015 will start to expire in early 2022. We plan to consult on the options of a further renewal of these licences as soon as possible.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the ScreenSkills campaign entitled, Find your future in film and TV.
Answered by Margot James
The Government recognises the importance of a strong and diverse talent pipeline to the continuing success of film and HETV in the UK and pleased to see ScreenSkills leading the way with its new campaign. Having been launched on 23rd May, DCMS looks forward to seeing the results of its mix of cinema, social media and online promotion in the coming months and years.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress he has made on establishing a new National Spectrum Centre in Aberystwyth to enable UK businesses to (a) develop and (b) test wireless technology in a suitable environment.
Answered by Margot James
Government is not directly involved in this initiative. We welcome industry-led research to develop innovative and efficient uses of spectrum.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of opening up access to the 5G spectrum to new users on the speed of deployment of 5G to rural communities.
Answered by Margot James
In the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, the Government supports the introduction of flexible, shared spectrum models - such as dynamic spectrum access - and the release of additional public sector spectrum as strategic priorities. Government believes that spectrum sharing would enable new players, alongside existing mobile operators, to access and invest in new business models whilst enabling innovative solutions to connectivity challenges, such as in rural areas.
Today, we have the tools and technologies needed to allocate spectrum on a dynamic basis. Government will continue to work with Ofcom and industry to support innovation and investment and deliver improvements in coverage. We believe that the market expansion model will aid these objectives and encourage competition. The Government recently consulted on these ambitions in the Statement of Strategic Priorities. Ofcom, as the national regulatory authority, will have regard to these when carrying out the management of spectrum and other relevant functions.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential competition benefits of a dynamic spectrum access model for the next 5G auction to open up underemployed 5G spectrum to new providers.
Answered by Margot James
In the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, the Government supports the introduction of flexible, shared spectrum models - such as dynamic spectrum access - and the release of additional public sector spectrum as strategic priorities. Government believes that spectrum sharing would enable new players, alongside existing mobile operators, to access and invest in new business models whilst enabling innovative solutions to connectivity challenges, such as in rural areas.
Today, we have the tools and technologies needed to allocate spectrum on a dynamic basis. Government will continue to work with Ofcom and industry to support innovation and investment and deliver improvements in coverage. We believe that the market expansion model will aid these objectives and encourage competition. The Government recently consulted on these ambitions in the Statement of Strategic Priorities. Ofcom, as the national regulatory authority, will have regard to these when carrying out the management of spectrum and other relevant functions.