§ Mr. Ian Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater)I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to promote the extension of high-speed broadband connectivity in rural areas, to encourage private investment in essential engineering; and for connected purposes.Unusually in a speech on a ten-minute Bill, I start by paying tribute to a colleague, my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton (Mr. Flook), who has worked on the Bill with me.Members with far-flung constituencies like mine, with more sheep than voters, often bleat about broadband, "Why haven't we got it in Little Nimby?" We are all familiar with that, but this Bill is no bleat. It offers a practical way to get wires in, and fast. If it becomes law, it will start a technological revolution, and at last we will begin to see proper communications everywhere.
I hope that the House will bear with me for a brief idiot's guide—dare I say it—to the world of broadband. Let us start at the lowest point, the ordinary telephone in rural areas. Chances are it is linked via a long stretch of copper cable that swings in the breeze from dozens of telegraph poles and ends up in an old-fashioned telephone exchange. That may be perfectly good for phone calls, but just try sticking a computer on the end of it. Most home computers use a modem, which sends and receives information along copper cables at about 56 kilobytes per second.
Believe me, 56 kbps is slow. One can comfortably put the kettle on and make the tea while the 56 kbps unravels one's single e-mail from Auntie Enid. If she tries to send a photograph of her pet poodle, one might as well skip tea and embark on something much more relaxing. In the time it takes for the poodle picture to download, one can have a bath, cook a meal, pop out to the shops and redecorate the living room—56 kbps is the Zimmer frame of communications. One does not want to use it unless one absolutely has to. Trouble is, in rural areas there is often nothing better available.
Whose fault is that? It would be easy to lay the blame at the door of Britain's biggest telephone company, BT. After all, BT owns the telegraph poles and all the cables that run between them, and BT makes a great deal of money. It is perfectly capable of installing broadband. It does it in cities automatically, and could certainly wire up most rural bits of my patch if it felt like it, but it might not even break even on the investment, and that is the point.
In fact, BT has done a great deal in rural areas. It has upgraded exchanges and switched on broadband for small Somerset communities in my seat and that of my hon. Friend that we never thought would qualify when we started. BT has taken considerable risks and has made a big pitch of promising broadband if enough people sign up. BT's pledge was generous to a fault. Once the relevant number of signatories came forward, bingo—BT started to spend money on the infrastructure, even with no guarantee that anyone would take on the service at the end of the day. I was rather shocked to discover what really happens. BT 888 effectively invites people to sign a petition, and if the petition hits the right number, BT puts in broadband. However, the true take-up of broadband services is a measly 7 per cent. in my part of the world, which means that 93 per cent. said that they wanted broadband, but only a handful stumped up the money.
What sort of arithmetic is that? It is a wonder that BT even bothers. The business of wiring up Britain looks more like a charitable exercise than a commercial undertaking. Incidentally, that 7 per cent. broadband take-up rate also applies to urban areas. The average for the whole UK is a paltry 9 per cent., which means that the so-called broadband revolution looks like a small uprising.
This little Bill of mine offers tax breaks for installers of broadband infrastructure, not just for BT. BT might do most of the work, but other companies are involved in providing broadband in rural areas. There are firms using wireless radio links that also deserve our encouragement. What we need in exchange is broadband connections now. We should forget the silly sign-up petitions that prevent some areas from qualifying. The Bill gives tax breaks for investment, so it demands the full Monty.
I have some good news for the House. I took the trouble to discuss the whole idea in advance with BT bosses, and they said that they thought that I was on to something. This is rocket science, isn't it? BT has just decided, as of yesterday—as many Members will know—to scrap its sign-up registration scheme. From now on, it is making a firm pledge to install broadband in almost every rural area of Britain without any registration at all By its reckoning, that means that broadband should be available in more than 90 per cent. of the United Kingdom by 2005. Congratulations, boys—it is obviously good to talk.
That all shows what a simple little parliamentary idea can do to galvanise a huge multinational company. The Prime Minister is said to be very keen on the concept of wiring up Britain. He even has an e-envoy, with a whole office of dedicated nerds beavering away at their terminals in Whitehall. I hope that they can stop just long enough to hear me this afternoon.
The idea behind the Bill is so straightforward and effective that we might wonder why on earth it has not happened before. Perhaps the e-envoy will say, "E-by gum, what a good idea". The Prime Minister wants all Government services available online in the next three years. That is a tall order, and it can only work properly if broadband gets much broader. My Bill would help that process.
I notice that the Prime Minister's own website—for those who do not now, it is pm.gov.uk—now carries a range of extremely well made and informative propaganda films. The only trouble is that even at 512 kilobytes per second of British broadband, we still have to struggle to watch those movies in a tiny window screen the size of a postage stamp. In Japan and parts of America, broadband is really fast— 4 megabytes per second. That means that a computer can be used to watch a full-length movie in very high quality indeed, just like a television. That makes Britain's best broadband resemble Mickey Mouse, but then it is completely different. It is run on fibre optics, not old- 889 fashioned copper cable. Unfortunately, it costs an arm and a leg to install, but companies and private users sign up willingly and pay on the nail, because it really works.
BT has the know-how to plumb in fibre optics all over the country, but unfortunately it cannot estimate the demand. The only way to persuade the BTs of this world to make the scale of investment necessary is to free them from elements of tax liability. This little Bill does that.
Broadband is the buzz word that does not really cause much of a buzz in Britain, I am afraid. A lot my constituency is wired up for it, which is excellent. A lot of rural areas have fought jolly hard to get it, as my hon. Friend knows, but the majority of my constituents are not prepared to buy it. Perhaps they have realised that it is already out of date.
Broadband can be 10 times faster than an ordinary phone line, but frankly, that is not actually very quick. The technology for British broadband is known as asymmetric digital subscriber line. To many people, it is a lot better than nothing at all, but ADSL still stands for "another disappointingly slow link".
It does not have to be this way. Fibre optics is the answer, and that technology will eventually come. My Bill would simply hasten the process of giving the installers a decent incentive to risk their capital. BT makes shed-loads of profit. I forget how many millions that it is said to make every minute, but it is mega. Most of it already attracts the attention of the Inland Revenue.
My Bill argues the case for a judicious tax break on what is spent to bring Britain bang up to date in communications. It is supported, I hope, by Members from across the political spectrum. I commend it to the House.
Question put and agreed to.
Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Ian Liddell-Grainger, Mrs. Angela Browning, Mr. Adrian Flook, Mr. Bill Wiggin, Mr. Andrew Robathan, Mr. Peter Atkinson, Angela Watkinson, Mr. Paul Goodman and Mr. Kevan Jones.