Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
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 prevent mobile phone companies from continuing to charge customers for the cost of a handset after those costs have been recovered through the conclusion of a fixed-term contract; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Margot James
The 2017 Conservative Manifesto committed to make billing for telecoms consumers fairer and easier to understand, including making it clear when consumers have paid off the cost of their mobile handset. On 26 September 2018, Ofcom published two proposals to ensure fairer, more transparent prices for mobile customers who pay for their handsets and airtime within the same contract. First, achieving greater transparency by, for example, requiring mobile firms to break down the cost of the different parts of the bundled mobile package a customer is purchasing. Second, a requirement for providers to introduce fairer tariffs, for example moving consumers of bundled mobile phone packages to SIM only contracts, at the end of the minimum contract period. The consultation closes on 7 November 2018 and further details can be viewed at:
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of UK landmass has mobile voice and SMS coverage.
Answered by Matt Hancock
According to Ofcom's 2016 Connected Nations Report, there is voice and SMS coverage from at least one Mobile Network Operator to 90% of the UK landmass.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of households in the top 10 most (a) rural and (b) urban parliamentary constituencies have access to high speed broadband.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Department measures broadband rollout by premises and as such does not distinguish between households and businesses; nor does it have a measure of ‘most rural’. Third party websites like Think Broadband do list superfast broadband rollout by constituency - the link for this information is here: http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/browse