Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the number of properties in (a) Poplar and Limehouse constituency and (b) Tower Hamlets that have broadband speeds of less than 10Mbps.

According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2020 report, with data collected in September 2020,

1. Poplar and Limehouse constituency contains 459 premises which are unable to receive 10Mbps via a fixed line connection.

2. Tower Hamlets contains 723 premises which are unable to receive 10Mbps via a fixed line connection.

The average fixed line download speed is:

1. 59.3Mbps in Poplar and Limehouse and;

2. 53.7Mbps in Tower Hamlets.

This only accounts for the speeds premises receive via a fixed line broadband connection and therefore does not take into account those premises which are able to access a faster connection via a 4G or 5G mobile data service.

Most of these premises are likely to be able to access Superfast speeds via 4G (and some via 5G) with a mobile broadband data service.

According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2020 report with data collected in September 2020, accounting for mobile broadband data services,

1. Poplar and Limehouse constituency contains 134 premises which are unable to receive a connection that meets the requirements of the broadband Universal Service Obligation.

2. Tower Hamlets contains 335 premises which are unable to receive a connection that meets the requirements of the broadband Universal Service Obligation.