Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, published in July 2018, whether he has plans to bring forward legislative proposals to ensure transparency in the proposals for full fibre network build plans.
Answered by Margot James
The recommendations of the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR) were based on analysis of UK and global broadband markets, as well as extensive engagement with stakeholders. The FTIR concluded that the most effective way to deliver nationwide full fibre coverage by 2033 is to promote network competition wherever possible. The FTIR expects around a third of the country to be able to support three or more gigabit capable networks and a further half of the country to be able to support two gigabit capable networks. This includes the majority of suburban areas and towns. The FTIR recognised that the remainder of the country will be made up of areas that can only support a single network and that some areas, likely to be largely remote rural areas, will be too costly for the market to deliver alone. For the latter, likely to be around 10% of premises in the UK, the Government will pursue a strategy to support deployment of full fibre starting at the same time as the market deploys to commercially viable areas.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of the building of multiple open access full fibre networks in the same locations on the Government’s target of nationwide full fibre by 2033.
Answered by Margot James
The recommendations of the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR) were based on analysis of UK and global broadband markets, as well as extensive engagement with stakeholders. The FTIR concluded that the most effective way to deliver nationwide full fibre coverage by 2033 is to promote network competition wherever possible. The FTIR expects around a third of the country to be able to support three or more gigabit capable networks and a further half of the country to be able to support two gigabit capable networks. This includes the majority of suburban areas and towns. The FTIR recognised that the remainder of the country will be made up of areas that can only support a single network and that some areas, likely to be largely remote rural areas, will be too costly for the market to deliver alone. For the latter, likely to be around 10% of premises in the UK, the Government will pursue a strategy to support deployment of full fibre starting at the same time as the market deploys to commercially viable areas.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, for what reason the Government has encouraged multiple full fibre infrastructure providers to build competing networks in the same areas.
Answered by Margot James
The recommendations of the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR) were based on analysis of UK and global broadband markets, as well as extensive engagement with stakeholders. The FTIR concluded that the most effective way to deliver nationwide full fibre coverage by 2033 is to promote network competition wherever possible. The FTIR expects around a third of the country to be able to support three or more gigabit capable networks and a further half of the country to be able to support two gigabit capable networks. This includes the majority of suburban areas and towns. The FTIR recognised that the remainder of the country will be made up of areas that can only support a single network and that some areas, likely to be largely remote rural areas, will be too costly for the market to deliver alone. For the latter, likely to be around 10% of premises in the UK, the Government will pursue a strategy to support deployment of full fibre starting at the same time as the market deploys to commercially viable areas.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the Advertising Standards Authority’s decision that Internet Service Providers can advertise using the term fibre even when their network relies on copper and aluminium wiring.
Answered by Margot James
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the UK's independent regulator of advertising. It recently reviewed the use of the term ‘fibre’ to describe part-fibre and full-fibre broadband and concluded in November 2017 that the term 'fibre' is unlikely to mislead consumers as currently used in the advertising of part-fibre broadband services. Permission for judicial review of this ASA's decision has been granted by the Administrative Court. In June, the Administrative Court granted CityFibre permission to proceed with its Judicial Review of the ASA's decision.
On 23 May 2018, the ASA also implemented new guidance on broadband speeds advertising, stating speed claims should now be based on the download speeds available to at least 50% of customers at peak time, and no longer on 'up to' speeds available to at least 10% of customers. This is good news for consumers, who need clear, concise and accurate information in order to make an informed choice on their broadband, which is now a modern necessity. Ofcom has also updated its Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds recently.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Government's UK Digital Strategy 2017, what progress he has made in ensuring that the advertising of full fibre broadband services is accurate and fair.
Answered by Margot James
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the UK's independent regulator of advertising. It recently reviewed the use of the term ‘fibre’ to describe part-fibre and full-fibre broadband and concluded in November 2017 that the term 'fibre' is unlikely to mislead consumers as currently used in the advertising of part-fibre broadband services. Permission for judicial review of this ASA's decision has been granted by the Administrative Court. In June, the Administrative Court granted CityFibre permission to proceed with its Judicial Review of the ASA's decision.
On 23 May 2018, the ASA also implemented new guidance on broadband speeds advertising, stating speed claims should now be based on the download speeds available to at least 50% of customers at peak time, and no longer on 'up to' speeds available to at least 10% of customers. This is good news for consumers, who need clear, concise and accurate information in order to make an informed choice on their broadband, which is now a modern necessity. Ofcom has also updated its Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds recently.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to help ensure that consumers are aware of the comparative benefits of full fibre broadband compared with connections which use copper or aluminium wiring.
Answered by Margot James
The government has set an ambitious target for 15 million premises to be connected to full fibre by 2025, with nationwide coverage by 2033. In July, we published our Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR), which sets out the changes needed to make this happen, including ensuring that the consumer environment supports our full fibre ambitions. To help stimulate the full fibre broadband market, the government has set up the £200m Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) Challenge Fund, which is open for local bodies to bid into, and the £67m Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme for small businesses and local communities to contribute to the cost of fibre installation.