Superfast Broadband: Rural Communities

Indeed. Breaking the picture down to ward level gives a much better idea of what is happening on ...

I congratulate the right hon. Gentleman on securing the debate. Only last week I received a respo...

I could make many comments about that sort of thing, but I fear that you would rule me out of ord...

rose—

If I can just make a second or two of progress, I will take as many interventions as I can later....

rose—

rose—

I suspect that I am going to get willing agreement first from the hon. Gentleman and then the hon...

The right hon. Gentleman is correct—it is willing agreement—but it does not have to be like this....

The hon. Gentleman and I both know the Faroe Islands quite well and we both know that they have b...

Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that the problem exists not just at the end of the country wh...

The hon. Lady has the advantage of me. I was mildly and pleasantly surprised to hear that we stil...

First, I must make it clear that I fully support the roll-out of rural broadband. It is crucial f...

The position will never be uniform across any community but—I think that this distinction is mate...

Does the right hon. Gentleman share my view that it must be just a coincidence that, in many of t...

I do not want to turn this into a whinge-fest about British Telecom, because that is just too eas...

Is it not right to note—as the hon. Member for Edinburgh North and Leith (Deidre Brock) did—that ...

I confess that of the many difficulties I have encountered in the years I have been dealing with ...

The right hon. Gentleman is making a constructive point about the roll-out of mobile telecommunic...

Indeed; I can think of few areas that would be more suitable. I say that not entirely with my ton...

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for giving way again—he is being very generous with his...

I think that will be the answer to filling the last 5%, but there will not be a single solution. ...

Does the right hon. Gentleman find the ad hoc nature of much of this strange? I happened to come ...

That is a good illustration, though I will not, on the one hand, make a plea for decentralised th...

Order. Seven Members have risen to speak and we have less than 40 minutes before the wind-ups are...

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate, Mr Brady. As a former parliamentary priva...

On a point of clarification, what is the EU’s role? When it works with the Welsh Government all i...

There was a partnership between the European Union, Cornwall Council and BT. Cornwall was one of ...

It is a pleasure, as always, to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Brady, and to follow the hon. M...

It comes down to where people are. If they are in a bad area, whether in an urban or rural part o...

I am grateful for that intervention, but I was on the hon. Gentleman’s side when I said that ther...

The hon. Gentleman might like to know that the roll-out in my constituency is just over 80% at th...

The hon. Lady is contradicting herself. She was saying how poor it was earlier. She is almost lea...

The point that the hon. Gentleman is making is exactly right. We are talking about the roll-out o...

That is absolutely right. The hon. Gentleman has now reinforced that point, and I agree totally. ...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Brady. I congratulate the right hon. Member...

My hon. Friend has hit on an important point that affects many of my constituents. Although we ar...

That is certainly the experience of my constituents. They find it deeply frustrating and are at a...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Brady. I am delighted to speak in this impo...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

I will finish my point and then take the right hon. Gentleman’s intervention.

It seems that...

It is a simple matter of fact that the Ofcom auction was conducted on the basis that it would not...

Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman will explain, if he gets an opportunity to speak later, why the ...

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate, Mr Brady. I thank the right hon. Member for Orkney and ...

I thank the hon. Member for Strangford, my constituency neighbour, for his contribution and for g...

I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. I agree with her point, which she made very well. Per...

Just before the hon. Gentleman gets on to the Northern Ireland context, I want to nail the issue ...

The Minister clearly said 95%, and the hon. Gentleman has pointed out that that falls to 59% in r...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Brady. I thank the right hon. Member for Or...

I congratulate the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) on obtaining the deb...

I am not sure whether these broadband debates are cathartic. There is certainly an unleashing of ...

Does my hon. Friend share my frustration about not knowing who to blame? Just when we think we ha...

In a future debate, we should address the fact that there is too much outsourcing of policy decis...

The hon. Gentleman makes 10 megabits sound like a dream that we aspire to, but given the rapid ch...

That is an excellent point.

Let me explain why 10 megabits would be the wrong decision. Ofc...

You have run out.

Okay. I have run out. I was not sure; my apologies.

Sit down!

It is always a pleasure when the former Minister is here.

Let me make one final point, if I...

I, too, congratulate the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) on securing th...

For the past six years, it has been Labour party policy to provide 2 megabits per second to 100% ...

I can inform the right hon. Gentleman that Labour’s policy did indeed change last year, and for t...

I thank the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) for securing the debate and...

It is amazing how the Minister can try to make a partisan point and claim it is non-partisan, but...

I do not want to point this out, but I have just commended the Labour Government in Wales for bei...

The Minister will be aware of some of the challenges we face in Suffolk in delivering high-speed ...

Yes. Thanks to the support of my hon. Friend and near neighbour on the Digital Economy Bill, we a...

I am grateful to the Minister for acknowledging the roll-out in Wales and other areas, but does h...

That is a really important point, especially in relation to Broadband Delivery UK areas that are ...

That is in the past couple of days.

One hopes. Clearly the engineers have been busy.

I met the hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an...