Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many postcodes in (a) Bethnal Green and Bow constituency and (b) London are currently earmarked for fibre broadband installation in the next 12 months.
Answered by Margot James
The Government does not hold details of suppliers’ commercial plans to extend fibre broadband coverage within London.
The Full Fibre Networks Programme (LFFN) has launched a £190m Challenge Fund into which Local Authorities have been invited to bid by 26th January 2018. We previously received an expression of interest from Tower Hamlets Council which referenced Bethnal Green and Bow. We therefore anticipate a bid from them.
The Government is currently trialling a voucher scheme which makes full fibre connection vouchers available to SMEs in four regional areas. The Government will make full fibre connection vouchers available for companies across the country in 2018 to help businesses gain the benefits of fibre broadband connectivity.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, in how many local authority areas in (a) London and (b) England broadband speeds are below the recommended speed as advised by Ofcom.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Superfast broadband with speeds of at least 24Mbps is now available to 90 per cent of UK premises and this will reach 95 per cent by December 2017. The Government has also implemented a basic broadband scheme to enable all premises to gain access to speeds of at least 2Mbps. This enables residents and businesses in all parts of the UK to gain access to every government service available online.
In addition it is the Government's intention to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation that will give people the legal right to request a broadband connection, no matter where they live, by the end of this Parliament. Our ambition is that this should initially be set at 10 Mbps.
There is no specific recommended speed advised by Ofcom.