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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2016 to Question 47357, what proportion of households in Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency have access to superfast broadband.

BDUK estimate that currently just over 63% of premises have access to superfast broadband in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency and that by the end of 2017 this is expected to rise to 65%. The Northern Ireland broadband project has further funding of over £3m to invest to support additional coverage. All premises with a broadband speed of less than 2Mbps can apply to the Better Broadband Scheme to gain an improved broadband service.

In addition, we are committed to introducing a new broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) within this Parliament. The USO will give households and businesses the legal right to request a broadband connection with speeds of at least 10 Megabits, no matter where they live or work. Ofcom’s view is that 10Mbps is an appropriate minimum speed for a USO for now, given typical household use of digital services