UK Telecoms (Hansard, 20 July 2001)

§ Mr. Rosindell
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the impact of third generation licensing costs on growth and employment in the UK telecoms sector. [6278]

§ Mr. Alexander
We believe that the medium and long-term prospects for the UK Telecoms sector remain strong. The current down-turn is part of a global phenomenon and not limited to countries in which there have been auctions of third generation mobile licences. UK mobile operators are continuing to work towards launch of third generation services as rapidly as is practicable, but they are constrained at present by the availability of handsets.

§ Pete Wishart
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what financial assistance she has given to the expansion of the UK telecommunications network in each year since 1997; and what proportion of the UK broken down by nation and region, has access to(a) ISDN, (b) ADSL and (c) broadband connection. [6310]

§ Mr. Alexander
There have been no schemes of financial assistance directed specifically at the expansion of the UK telecommunications network in this period600W although telecommunications companies are able to receive funding from other, general business support schemes as appropriate.
We are collating the relevant information for the national and regional access to ISDN, ADSL and Broadband as part of the work announced in 'UK online: the broadband future' which was published alongside the White Paper.

§ Pete Wishart
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will place in the Library a map showing the geographical extent of access to(a) ISDN, (b) ADSL and (c) broadband; what steps she proposes to ensure increased access for small businesses in rural areas to these connections; and what proportion of businesses in each nation and region of the UK (i) have and (ii) do not have access to (A) ISDN, (B) ADSL and (C) broadband connections. [6311]

§ Mr. Alexander
The Government are committed to working to ensure that broadband access is available in all parts of the country. A map showing the predicted geographical extent of access for different broadband technologies for 2003 was published in 'UK online: the broadband future' a copy of which has been placed in the Library. As part of the ongoing work developing this strategy we are collating the relevant information for the geographical access to ISDN. ADSL and Broadband.
In May, my right hon. Friend the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry announced a major new project to determine how to speed up the roll-out of broadband services to individuals and businesses in rural and other areas that individual suppliers currently see as uncommercial. The project will establish how, by aggregating the public sector's demand for broadband services, we can best encourage telecommunications companies to roll out broadband infrastructure to these `hard to reach' areas.