§ The Earl of Northeskasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answers by Lord Sainsbury of Turville on 11 March (WA 179) and 19 November 2001 (WA 115), how they explain that, whereas previously they defined broadband by reference to a minimum downstream speed of 384 kbit/s, no such minimum now exists in their definition; and [HL2124]
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Sainsbury of Turville on 11 March (WA 179), which statement of minimum data transfer speed should be relied on as their definition of broadband, 384 kbit/s (WA 115, 19 November 2001), 512 kbit/s (WA 77, 4 November 2002), or no specified minimum (HL1851). [HL2125]
§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleThe Answer given on 19 November 2001 (WA115) referred to the initial assessment of a minimum data transfer speed to define higher bandwidth technologies, as made in UK Online: the broadband future, published in February 2001. Since then, we have taken advice from the broadband stakeholder group which defines broadband as "always on access, at work, at home or on the move provided by a range of fixed line, wireless and satellite technologies to progressively higher bandwidths capable of supporting genuinely new and innovative content, applications and services and the delivery of enhanced public services". [BSG Second Annual Report and Strategic Recommendations, November 2002].
The broadband statistics that Oftel collects are based on information provided voluntarily from operators such as ntl, Telewest and BT. The operators provide data relating to higher bandwidth, always-on services, offering data rates of 128kbps and above, which are targeted to the mass-market as broadband.