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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the broadband universal service obligation to increase the requirements for latency sufficiency to a level that can deliver reliable video calling.

The speed and technical requirements of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) were set on the advice of Ofcom based on the broadband requirements of a typical household, including both voice and video calls. The USO acts as a digital safety net for households unable to access a broadband service that meets these requirements at present.

Section 72A of the Digital Economy Act 2017 includes a requirement for the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to give a direction to Ofcom to review the broadband USO when at least 75% of premises in the UK subscribe to a broadband service that provides a download speed of at least