Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of how much people in rural areas will have to contribute to receive a basic 10 Mbit/s broadband connection as a result of his Department’s decision not to automatically roll-out broadband to all households and businesses.

Mr Edward Vaizey

This information is not yet available. Ofcom’s call for evidence on the the design of the broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) invites views on how a reasonable cost threshold for a broadband connection might be determined. The new broadband USO will give all households and businesses the legal right to request a fast broadband connection. This would work similarly to the telephone USO, where there is a reasonable cost threshold above which the hardest to reach properties are expected to contribute to the cost of the installation.