§ Mr. Nigel JonesTo ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) how many miles of co-axial cable have been laid towards the information super-highway infrastructure; and if he will make a statement;
(2) how many miles of optical fibre cable have been laid towards the information super-highway infrastructure; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Ian TaylorThe Department does not hold details of how many miles of optical fibre and coaxial cable have been laid. Figures from industry sources, however, point to the rapid installation of new or upgraded communications networks. Investment in these new networks has been spurred by the Government's liberalisation of the telecommunications sector.
Optical fibre is the dominant technology for trunk networks and inter-exchange traffic, and increasingly for large business customers. BT, for example, has more than 1.4 million miles of optical fibre in its network. The cable industry is installing 260,000 miles of fibre per annum. Together with the networks being installed by other telecommunications operators such as Mercury, Energis, COLT, and MFS, the United Kingdom is estimated to have more than 2 million miles of fibre.
Coaxial copper cable, which is the medium normally used by the cable industry in the final connection to residential customers, is being installed at a rate of 60,000 miles per annum. Compression techniques can materially increase the amount of traffic which can be sent over these cables. The information super-highway embraces both fibre and coaxial cable and applications are being developed accordingly.