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Roger Williams MP |
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WILLIAMS CRITICISES GOVERNMENT FOR DELAYING BROADBAND FOR RURAL CONSUMERS
March 29, 2010 3:01 PM
Roger Williams, MP for Brecon and Radnorshire and Liberal Democrat Food and Rural Affairs spokesperson, has criticised the Government for ignoring rural consumers' need for broadband.
Roger Williams said:
"In Westminster the Government and the Conservatives are out-promising each other for how fast the broadband will be for urban consumers should they be elected into power there.
"Meanwhile here in my constituency, as in much of Wales, large numbers of consumers would like to be offered broadband right now of any speed.
"But the fibre which politicians in Westminster are so enamoured of isn't going to reach my rural constituents for many years - if at all.
"So why isn't the spectrum which has been freed up across Wales by switching off analogue television being used to offer broadband wirelessly when it's so ideally suited?
"All it needs is for the Government in Westminster to make some of this spectrum available to companies which would undertake to use it to deliver broadband to rural consumers.
"But instead they seem to be restricting access to even parts of this spectrum from new entrants other then the mobile phone operators.
"With Digital Britain, as with much else, this Government delivers fine words but few results for the people of Brecon and Radnorshire."
NOTES:
Most experts agree that next-generation broadband will be necessary to keep pace with new services that require a lot of bandwidth, such as video - especially the increasing demand for high definition (HD) - and 3D.
It is generally accepted that the best way to deliver this will be via fibre-optic cables which are expensive to lay, especially in rural areas.
Wireless broadband, using the latest Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology and spectrum left redundant after analogue television has been switched off, could be offering broadband to rural consumers in "not spots" from 2011 - and at far less need for public subsidy in rural areas than fibre would need.
Analogue television has already been switched off in many rural areas with no broadband at all, and in the whole of Wales as of 31 March 2010.
But the Government has proposed that this "television spectrum" be auctioned in a manner which is neither optimised to encourage market entry nor has obligations to address rural not spots first. Worse, it looks likely that the Government will try to rush through the relevant Statutory Instrument - "Electronic Communications - The Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 (Directions to OFCOM) Order 2010" - without proper Parliamentary scrutiny before the General Election.
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