§ John RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment her Department has made of the effect of fees charged for the migration of broadband customers on(a) competitiveness in telecommunications and (b) broadband take-up. [162057]
1140W
§ Mr. TimmsAccording to Oftel's "International benchmarking study of Internet access (dial-up and broadband)" for October 2003, the percentage growth in broadband subscriber numbers in the UK remains strong. The UK market is more competitive in terms of service providers and infrastructure competition than either France or Germany. Although take-up in the UK is behind other countries benchmarked, this is at least partly explained by the later launch date of broadband in the UK and the availability of unmetered services.
These factors along with increasingly competitive broadband prices, present a positive picture for broadband development in the UK and in the six months prior to the study, the UK had reached penetration levels similar to France and was catching up on Germany.
In December 2003, Oftel and the incoming Communications Regulator Ofcom agreed a joint draft decision on the regulation of the UK's wholesale broadband access market, which concluded regulatory obligations remained necessary to ensure fair and effective competition. UK individuals and organisations with an interest in the wholesale broadband market were given until 6 February to comment. The EU is also considering the proposals.
Oftel and Ofcom also found that BT should be required to provide its Datastream products on a retail minus basis to allow a sufficient margin between the price it charges for its IPStream products and the price charged for the Datastream products. The actual retail minus margin will be set following consultation in the first quarter of 2004.