§ Mr. BettsTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many cabling franchises have been awarded to date; how many properties these franchises cover; how many properties have been cabled to date; and how many properties he expects will be cabled in each of the next three years.
§ Mr. Leigh[holding answer 23 March 1993]: The answer is:
- (a) 135 cable franchises have been awarded, of which eight have been subsequently handed back of revoked;
- (b) The franchises awarded covered around 14.5 million properties; excluding the eight lapsed franchises this figure falls to around 14.2 million;
- (c) Approximately 2,213,000 properties have been cabled passed to date and of these, around 454,000 properties have been connected to cable services;
- (d) The Department does not itself issue forecasts in this area. Independent forecasts suggest that some 700,000 additional properties will be cabled passed in 1993, 1,200,000 in 1994 and 1,500,000 in 1995. Clearly, only a proportion of these properties will subscribe to cable services.
§ Mr. BettsTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what action he intends to take against those companies awarded cabling franchises which have made no significant progress in cabling properties to date.
§ Mr. Leigh[holding answer 23 March 1993]: Responsibility for monitoring and, if appropriate, enforcing compliance with build obligations contained in cable operators' licences issued under the Telecommunications Act 1984 is a matter for the Director General of Telecommunications.