Michael Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Tomlinson on 2016-06-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will provide additional funding for broadband provision to difficult to reach properties in (a) rural and (b) urban areas which have not been provided with access under the Universal Service Obligation to date and where Openreach fibre rollout has been delayed for more than a year.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Superfast broadband coverage will reach 95% of UK premises by the end of 2017. Further funding from clawback and efficiency savings in the local broadband contracts with BT will allow this coverage to be extended further.

In addition it is the Government’s intention to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation. This 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.