UK Parliament / Open data

Broadband Universal Service Obligation

Proceeding contribution from Ian Lucas (Labour) in the House of Commons on Thursday, 15 December 2016. It occurred during Backbench debate on Broadband Universal Service Obligation.

I will not give way to the hon. Lady because she makes cheap political points.

In addition, many areas do not have the broadband infrastructure to secure superfast services. Until recently, Wrexham had only one broadband infrastructure system, which was unable to meet the demand from local businesses and individuals. The UK Government, who are responsible for devising the system, should have put in place a governance structure that created either the necessary

infrastructure through a monopoly provider or a competitive market in which providers compete to build infrastructure. Their failure is that they have done neither since 2010.

I am pleased to say that in Wrexham, in the past two months, Virgin Media has begun to build its own infrastructure system, its first in north Wales, as part of the Project Lightning programme. I thank Virgin Media for responding to the pressure I have consistently put it under to introduce that system, but if we are to have a universal system right across the UK, it is incumbent on the Government and regulators to create the system necessary right across the UK. That they have not done so already is a failure on their part.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
618 cc1038-9 
Session
2016-17
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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