§ Mr. Nigel JonesTo ask the President of the Board of Trade when he expects that a fibre optic cable system will cover all areas of the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. McLoughlin[holding answer 8 March 1994]: The Government's policy of promoting competition in telecommunications infrastructure is encouraging a large number of companies to install modern telecoms networks. The inter-exchange elements of the networks installed by BT, Mercury and Energis are already almost exclusively optical fibre. So are an increasing number of the links to individual businesses. Cable TV companies are installing optical fibre well down the network towards individual homes. I expect to see these trends accelerate. However, it is not for the Government to require the use of any particular technology. It is for telecoms operators to decide whether and when it is economic to use optical fibre or other technologies such as coaxial copper cable, copper wire, radio or satellite.