Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to support fair competition in the broadband market between national ISPs and alternative network operators in rural areas.

Under the Communications Act 2003, Ofcom’s principal duty is to further the interests of citizens and consumers, where appropriate by promoting competition.

In July, we published a consultation on a draft updated Statement of Strategic Priorities to Ofcom that sets out the government’s view on the importance of competition to promote investment in broadband deployment across the UK, including in rural areas. We are currently reviewing responses to the consultation and will publish our response in due course.

Ofcom has powers to identify markets, determine whether a firm has significant market power (SMP) on those markets, and impose remedies as appropriate. Ofcom has not found any internet service provider to have SMP in the retail broadband market. However, in the wholesale fixed telecoms market, BT was found to have SMP and a range of pricing and non-pricing remedies were imposed on the company in order to promote network competition.