Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of a Government scheme to fund internet connectivity improvements in housing estates with copper wires.

Project Gigabit is the Government’s flagship £5 billion programme to enable hard-to-reach communities, left out of commercial delivery plans, to access lightning-fast gigabit-capable broadband.

We expect most premises which require a Government subsidy through Project Gigabit to be in rural areas. However, to achieve our mission of nationwide coverage, which we expect to be at least 99% of premises having access to a gigabit capable connection, we are aware that there are pockets of more urban areas that are left out of commercial plans. Work is ongoing to identify an appropriate course of action for these premises. The solution here may involve working with suppliers to help remove barriers to commercial delivery rather than using public subsidy.

We have already amended building regulations so that new homes are future-proofed with gigabit connectivity; and where this is not available within a per-home cost cap, with gigabit-ready infrastructure to facilitate a gigabit-capable connection when this becomes available.

Alongside government intervention, the telecoms industry is leading on upgrading the UK’s landline network from the analogue Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), delivered over copper wires, to more reliable and future proofed services delivered over digital landlines, also referred to as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). These services will predominantly rely on fibreoptic cables for their infrastructure. Government is monitoring this switch-off closely, to ensure that vulnerable consumers are protected.