Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress has been made on the rollout of (1) basic broadband, (2) superfast broadband, and (3) mobile coverage, in rural areas; and what assessment they have made of the impact of those technologies on the rural economy.

The Ofcom 2013 UK communications market report and infrastructure update report that broadband was available to 100% of UK premises, whilst 8% of connections were operating at less than 2mbps; that was down from 11% of connections in 2009.

By the end of summer 2014, 1 million new premises will have superfast broadband available for the first time as a result of our superfast broadband programme and 4 million additional premises will have superfast broadband available to them from the current projects; that will mean 90% of UK premises will be able to access superfast services. The second round of projects will add over 1 million more premises, taking coverage to 95% across the UK.

With respect to the impact of the broadband programme, an independent Broadband Impact Study by analysts SQW (with Cambridge Econometrics), revealed the Government's investment in superfast broadband is expected to deliver a major boost to the UK economy; for every £1 the government is investing in broadband, the UK economy could benefit by up to £20 by 2024. It also demonstrated that the benefits will be shared across the UK, helping the rebalancing of our economy; approximately 89 per cent of the benefits will be in areas outside London and the South East of England with rural areas set to benefit most.

The report focussed on impacts of mass market broadband services – i.e. ‘affordable broadband' for SMEs and households – and estimated that by 2024, net annual GVA impacts attributable to intervention include:

· £0.8 billion from safeguarding local enterprise employment,

· £5 billion from productivity growth for broadband-using firms,

· £0.3 billion from improved teleworker productivity, and

· £0.2 billion from increased labour force participation.

The majority of these benefits will be to SMEs, and over half to rural areas.

With respect to mobile coverage the 4G rollout will ensure we continue to have some of the best mobile broadband services in Europe. As a result of the 4G auction in 2012, O2 has an obligation to provide indoor 4G coverage to 98% of the UK population and to at least 95% in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland by the end of 2017. The other three UK mobile network operators have publicly committed to match O2's coverage obligation by the end of 2015.