Oral Answers to Questions

Dan Poulter Excerpts

Thursday 20th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jack Brereton (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Con)]

What progress his Department has made on the roll-out of gigabit broadband.

[Dr Dan Poulter (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) (Con)]

What steps he is taking to improve digital infra- structure and connectivity in rural areas.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

Jack Brereton. 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?

[Matt Warman]

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.