Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
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 is taking in response to the application by Openreach in January 2021 on behalf of 42 households in St Leonards, Dorset to have DCMS vouchers under the Community Fibre Partnership Scheme; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Community Fibre Partnership scheme (now titled the Fibre Community Partnership scheme) is an Openreach scheme for local community broadband projects. In rural areas, Openreach encourages communities to use the voucher funding provided by the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) to pay towards the cost of installing the network.
As there are a number of ongoing voucher applications in St Leonards, officials in Building Digital UK (BDUK) have been unable to identify the particular project that has been raised in this question. As Fibre Community Partnership’s are Openreach products, Openreach should be able to provide information on the status of this particular project.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if the Government will commission an inquiry into the effect on (a) domestic consumers and (b) businesses of the interference to internet and telecommunications services in Christchurch constituency on 28 June 2021; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Matt Warman
Reliable access to telecommunications services is vital for the operation of essential services, and our everyday home, work, education, and social lives, and I am sorry to hear about the recent issue experienced by your constituents.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport works with owners, operators and regulators to enable UK telecommunications networks and services to be as resilient as possible, and to respond quickly when incidents occur. As the UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom plays an important role in ensuring the ongoing security and resilience of the UK’s public telecoms networks by enforcing the current duties under the Communications Act 2003. Communications providers are responsible for delivering their services, for the resilience of their infrastructure, ensuring faults are fixed and for keeping customers up to date on progress.
From the information you have provided, this appears to relate to an incident with BT affecting internet access in the local area, which was resolved before midday on 28 June 2021. I understand BT reported the fault to Ofcom in line with their obligations, and Ofcom will determine whether further investigation is needed in line with its normal process.
Further information for consumers and businesses can be found on Ofcom’s website: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet, which also describes the formal complaints procedure for consumers unhappy with the response from their provider.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to publicise the (a) legal right for households to have an internet connection of at least 10Mbps and (b) entitlement to an upgrade to a fibre connection if other interventions fail; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Universal Service Conditions set out by Ofcom require the two Universal Service Providers (BT and KCOM in the Hull area) to take ‘reasonable steps... to raise awareness of the potential availability of Broadband Services under these Conditions among members of the public’. As of September 2020, BT had directly contacted 47,000 premises that are eligible for the Universal Service Obligation.
In addition, Ofcom, who are responsible for implementing the Universal Service Obligation, are taking their own steps to publicise it through both their website and a localised, geo-targeted social media campaign.
The Universal Service Obligation is technology neutral. It provides a legal right to request a decent broadband connection delivering a minimum 10Mbps download speed. It does not limit the technologies that can be used by the Universal Service Provider to deliver the minimum specification or provide a legal right for consumers to request an upgrade to a fibre connection. That said, the Universal Service Providers have provided fibre connections under the Universal Service Obligation where this is the most efficient technology solution.
In addition, the government has a number of other programmes to help people upgrade to gigabit capable connections, including the rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme for example. This is in addition to our commitment to invest £5bn from April 2021 to bring gigabit coverage to the hardest to reach areas as part of the UK Gigabit Programme.