§ The Earl of Northeskasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they agree with the decision of Oftel to revise their definition of "broadband" by dropping the requirement that Internet connections should be capable of delivering real-time video content; and, if so, what is the rationale underpinning this decision. [HL5172]
§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleOftel is an independent regulator, which has to decide for itself how to define a market so as best to fulfil its responsibilities.
Oftel published a consultation on the narrowband Internet market in August 2003. This provisionally concluded that asymmetric broadband Internet access is in a separate market from narrowband Internet access.
This revised definition takes account of responses to earlier consultations and Oftel's own consumer research which shows that people do not see real-time video content delivery and 256kbps as the defining feature of broadband (as previously set out in an earlier consultation by Oftel, published in April 2003). This is an economic definition for the purposes of the market review, which conforms to established principles of competition law methodology. It does not affect the range of services available to consumers at different bandwidths.
§ The Earl of Northeskasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the definition of broadband as an expression of data transfer speed in (a) Germany, (b) Sweden, (c) Spain, (d) Japan, (e) South Korea, (0 Australia, (g) the United States and (h) Canada differs from that in the United Kingdom; and, if so, how. [HL5173]
§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleThe Government do not keep information on other countries' definitions of broadband in terms of data transfer speeds. However, in their own analysis of the United Kingdom's relative position in the G7, they use the same definition to apply to all countries.