Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with mobile network operators on (a) digital infrastructure and inclusion and (b) reform of the Electronic Communications Code since May 2015.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Secretary of State regularly meets with all stakeholders across the telecoms industry to discuss a variety of relevant issues including the reform of the Electronic Communications Code. The Government is committed to reforming the current Code in ways that will promote network connectivity, expand coverage and take into account the legitimate interests of all parties. By enabling the rollout of telecommunications infrastructure, Code reform will provide more consumers across the country with a range of high quality digital services.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the mobile network operators on (a) digital infrastructure and inclusion and (b) reform of the Electronic Communications Code since May 2015.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Secretary of State regularly meets with all stakeholders across the telecoms industry to discuss a variety of relevant issues including the reform of the Electronic Communications Code. The Government is committed to reforming the current Code in ways that will promote network connectivity, expand coverage and take into account the legitimate interests of all parties. By enabling the rollout of telecommunications infrastructure, Code reform will provide more consumers across the country with a range of high quality digital services.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which projects in Wales have been (a) considered and (b) chosen for local television licences since 2010.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
In developing a framework for licensing local television, Ofcom assessed the technical feasibility of transmitting local television services at a number of locations in Wales. Illustrative technical plans were produced for six suitable locations: Cardiff, Swansea, Bangor, Mold, Carmarthen and Haverfordwest. The choice of locations was governed by the position of television transmitter masts and the availability of spectrum at each location. Given these constraints, it is not possible to provide local TV services via terrestrial TV everywhere in Wales – the same situation exists in England Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Ofcom advertised licences for local television services in four locations: Cardiff, Swansea, Bangor and Mold. Ofcom received no expressions of interest from any parties wishing to launch a service in either Haverfordwest or Carmarthen. Licences have been awarded for Cardiff, Swansea and Mold and statements of these licence awards are published on Ofcom’s website. Ofcom decided not to award the local TV licence to the sole bidder for Bangor licence.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who selected which towns and cities are eligible for Broadband Connection Vouchers.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
DCMS set the eligibility criteria for those cities announced by the Chancellor at the Budget in March. The 50 cities invited to participate were 1) the 22 existing Super Connected cities, 2) cities that applied or were eligible to apply to the Super Connected Cities Programme, and 3) cities already participating in the City Deal programme (or related programme in the home nations).
The participating cities set their own intervention areas based on their economic priorities.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
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 27 February 2015 to Question 225228, what criteria his Department uses to decide on which regional commercial radio stations to advertise superfast broadband.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has advertised on radio as part of its £8 million national broadband awareness campaign. The awareness campaign also includes TV, posters, press adverts and online advertising. For radio advertising, as with all media used, we select the radio stations which will reach our target audience as efficiently as possible basing our decision on data such as listener figures, audience demographics and reach of each radio station.Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much his Department has spent on advertising on Classic FM in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The release of this information would prejudice commercial interests.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much his Department has spent on advertising on regional commercial radio stations in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Department has spent £569,000 on advertising on regional commercial stations broken down as follows:
£269,000 to promote broadband connection vouchers in eligible cities (November-December 2014)
£300,000 as part of the government’s £8 million superfast broadband awareness campaign (February 2015)
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will carry out an assessment of the adequacy of mobile telephone coverage in Wrexham town centre.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
An assessment of mobile telephone coverage of the whole of the UK, including Wrexham and West Cheshire and Chester, has been carried out by Ofcom and is publicly available on the Regulator’s web site: http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-services/ The information provided goes down to the level of an appropriate administrative area – such as Wrexham. It is not possible to identify data separately for Wrexham town centre
This covers both 2G and 3G networks and may be consulted on the basis of geographical area or premises. Coverage in each area is ranked from 1 to 5 on the level of mobile coverage (1= 95% or more; 2= 90% - less than 95%; 3= 80% - less than 90%; 4= 60% - less than 80%; 5= less than 60%). It is also possible to download the data in tabular form. The data was last up-dated on 13 December 2013. More information may be found in Ofcom’s 2013 up-date to its Infrastructure Report, also available to download at: http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-services/
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what comparative assessment he has made of the adequacy of mobile telephone coverage in (a) Wrexham and (b) West Cheshire and Chester.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
An assessment of mobile telephone coverage of the whole of the UK, including Wrexham and West Cheshire and Chester, has been carried out by Ofcom and is publicly available on the Regulator’s web site: http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-services/ The information provided goes down to the level of an appropriate administrative area – such as Wrexham. It is not possible to identify data separately for Wrexham town centre
This covers both 2G and 3G networks and may be consulted on the basis of geographical area or premises. Coverage in each area is ranked from 1 to 5 on the level of mobile coverage (1= 95% or more; 2= 90% - less than 95%; 3= 80% - less than 90%; 4= 60% - less than 80%; 5= less than 60%). It is also possible to download the data in tabular form. The data was last up-dated on 13 December 2013. More information may be found in Ofcom’s 2013 up-date to its Infrastructure Report, also available to download at: http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-services/
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of mobile telephone coverage in Wrexham County Borough.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
An assessment of mobile telephone coverage of the whole of the UK, including Wrexham and West Cheshire and Chester, has been carried out by Ofcom and is publicly available on the Regulator’s web site: http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-services/ The information provided goes down to the level of an appropriate administrative area – such as Wrexham. It is not possible to identify data separately for Wrexham town centre
This covers both 2G and 3G networks and may be consulted on the basis of geographical area or premises. Coverage in each area is ranked from 1 to 5 on the level of mobile coverage (1= 95% or more; 2= 90% - less than 95%; 3= 80% - less than 90%; 4= 60% - less than 80%; 5= less than 60%). It is also possible to download the data in tabular form. The data was last up-dated on 13 December 2013. More information may be found in Ofcom’s 2013 up-date to its Infrastructure Report, also available to download at: http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-services/