Superfast Broadband
Debate between Tom Tugendhat and Matt Warman
Matt Warman
Transparency is critical. On that point, 17% of the UK still does not even have the option of a superfast broadband connection, and 8% of the country cannot receive the 10 megabits connections that Ofcom says are required for mainstream services, and 500,000 still lack even basic broadband.
Tom Tugendhat (Tonbridge and Malling) (Con)
My hon. Friend is making a brilliant speech. I would like to mention one of the many communities in my constituency that are divided by this. In Ightham, half the village can access some rural broadband from BT, but to the other half BT is promising things that it will simply never deliver, because it has realised that the economics do not add up. In the meantime, companies such as Gigaclear seem to be rolling out broadband perfectly happily to villages such as Plaxtol and Golden Green. Will he please urge the Minister to encourage more competition, and therefore greater roll-out?
Matt Warman
I would be delighted to do that, and I welcome the mention of what I think will be the first of several small villages to be mentioned in this debate—