Internet: Rural Areas
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help (a) improve internet services for rural communities and (b) ensure that internet companies do not have monopolies in rural areas.
Answered by Chris Bryant
The government helped create a competition-friendly environment which supports over 100 providers in the UK deploying broadband in commercially viable areas. Through Project Gigabit, the government is delivering gigabit-capable broadband to UK premises that are not included in suppliers' commercial plans, predominantly in rural areas, with nearly £2 billion of contracts now secured to connect over a million more premises.
Regulating monopolies is a matter for Ofcom, the independent telecoms regulator and it can impose pro-competition remedies on providers with significant market power (SMP). Currently, Ofcom has determined that only BT Group and KCOM have SMP.
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