Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made with the Rural Connected Communities Project; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of using North East Bedfordshire as a pilot area for that initiative.
Answered by Margot James
The 5G Testbeds and Trials Programme is currently developing proposals for the Rural Connected Communities (RCC) project. This aims to build the business case for 5G, and rural mobile coverage by testing a range of technical solutions and commercial models, building and proving demand through new use cases.
When the application process for the RCC project is open, as a mainly rural area, North East Bedfordshire may wish to submit a bid, subject to the competition’s final eligibility requirements.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to launch the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme.
Answered by Margot James
At Budget 2018, £200 million was allocated from the National Productivity Investment Fund for the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme. This is to start our "Outside-In" approach identified in the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, which seeks to ensure that around 10% of UK premises that are not likely to get commercial full fibre coverage by 2033 are addressed at the same pace as the rest of the country.
We will make further announcements on this policy shortly.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many households have taken up the Government's subsidised broadband connection offer in North East Bedfordshire.
Answered by Matt Hancock
11,257.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what BT's commercial investment was in broadband rollout in North East Bedfordshire.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Department does not hold information on BT's commercial investment in broadband roll-out.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he expects superfast broadband to reach the coverage target of 95 per cent in North East Bedfordshire.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
This Government is committed to national access to superfast broadband and anticipates that at least 95% premises in the Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes project will be able to access superfast broadband by December 2017.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many different companies tendered for the 47 contracts to deliver superfast broadband under phases one and two of the Superfast Broadband programme.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
In Phase 1 of the Superfast Broadband Programme there are 44 contracts between Local Bodies and providers. 33 of these used the Broadband Delivery Framework. Nine suppliers started the competitive dialogue tender process for the Framework and three submitted final tenders. Two of these tenders were accepted. Of these, only one supplier has submitted bids for individual projects.
For the remaining 11 local projects an OJEU procurement was used by the Local Bodies. Across the 11 projects a total of 19 different suppliers were invited to submit bids. Four different suppliers submitted ITT responses at the end of the procurement processes.
All three contracts so far signed for Phase 2 of the programme have used the Broadband Delivery Framework that was established as part of Phase 1.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of contracts to deliver rollout of superfast broadband have been granted to BT since 2010.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
There are 47 contracts to deliver superfast broadband which have been let under phases 1 and 2 of the superfast broadband programme, a further eight market test pilot projects, and five projects funded by the Defra/DCMS Rural Community Broadband Fund. The eight market test pilot projects and three of the Rural Community Broadband Fund projects are with companies other than BT. The remaining 49 projects have contracts with BT.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding for broadband his Department has provided to (a) Bedford Borough Council and (b) Central Bedfordshire Council in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government has allocated £2.6million to the Central Superfast partnership which includes Central Bedfordshire, Bedford Borough and Milton Keynes under Phase 1 of the Superfast Broadband Programme. Funding of £34,372 has been paid to the project so far, paid in financial year 2014/15. The second phase of the programme is in the procurement process and BDUK has allocated £3.18million (to also include coverage of Luton).
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of properties in North East Bedfordshire receive (a) broadband at speeds below 2MBPS and (b) superfast broadband; and what changes there have been in these proportions.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Ofcom publish availability data. They report that the percentage of premises in Central Bedfordshire with speeds less than 2Mbps was 8.6% and 12% in Bedford. Superfast broadband is available to 76.8% of Central Bedfordshire and 77.1% of Bedford.
Between 2012 and 2013 this represents an increase of 6.5% in superfast broadband availability in Central Bedfordshire and a 1.8% reduction in the number receiving 2Mbps or below. For Bedford, figures are 1.1% increase in availability of superfast broadband and a 2.4% reduction in 2Mbps or below services.
Ofcom did not publish analysis at constituency level. The Ofcom figures were released in 2013, but Ofcom are due to release an update of its Fixed Broadband Map for 2014 shortly.