Memorandum submitted by Welsh Assembly
Government
1. The Welsh Assembly Government recognises
that widespread access to affordable, secure broadband is important
to businesses and citizens across Wales. The challenge is to ensure
that the communications infrastructure enables access to the services
required by both businesses and citizens wherever they are. It
is vital therefore that government, regulator and industry address
this challenge and thus build a thriving and prosperous Welsh
economy.
2. To this end, the Assembly Government
has a history of working with the telecommunications industry
and the communications regulator, Ofcom to share information on
communications infrastructure issues, understand barriers to investment,
including regulatory, planning and economic issues, and inform
future policy making in this area.
3. The Assembly Government launched a programme
of activities in 2002 to transform broadband availability
and take up across Wales. The programme covered a mix of supply
and demand activities based on European Commission rules and best
practice. The underlying principle was that Government would only
intervene where necessary and appropriate, in a technology neutral
manner.
4. By July 2007 the Assembly Government
had taken action to ensure that all telephone exchanges in Wales
had been DSL-enabled for broadband services; making broadband
available to an additional 7,500 premises. The impact of
these activities has been positive and has been reflected in a
sharp rise in consumer take-up figures for broadband since this
date.
5. Despite these efforts there are
still some premises that continue to face difficulties accessing
a broadband service. The Regional Innovative Broadband Support
(RIBS) scheme is focussed on bringing a broadband solution to
these locations. In December 2008 it was announced that the
project would address several known notspot clusters in Pembrokeshire,
Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Conwy. This work was completed
in August 2009 and work is now underway to identify the next
areas for investment.
6. The Assembly Government has also taken
steps to stimulate economic growth and encourage enterprise in
North Wales by improving access to competitive communications
infrastructure in the region through the FibreSpeed project. This
joint venture between the Assembly Government, European Regional
Development Funds and Geo Networks Ltd constitutes £30 million
of investment over 15 years. The new network is creating
a competitive retail market for service providers who are now
able to sell a diverse range of affordable (benchmarked against
London & the south east of England) voice and data services
in the region. The open access approach to the project has been
recognised by both Ofcom and UK Government as an exemplary approach
to public funded broadband intervention. The project was also
referenced by the European Commission recent consultation on the
application of state aid rules in publicly funded broadband networks.
7. In addition, action is underway to transform
broadband access across the public sector in Wales via the Public
Sector Broadband Aggregation (PSBA) project. Public sector sites
are connected to the network using either fibre or copper circuits
at a range of bandwidths involving different security profiles
dependent on the business requirements of each site. There are
currently in excess of 850 connected sites, with new sites
added to the network daily. As a result of PSBA, public sector
employees from participating organisations will be able to exploit
advanced voice, video and data services according to the business
requirements of their organisation more cost effectively and securely
than in the past.
8. Alongside these actions, the Assembly
Government has been an active participant in the UK debate on
next generation broadband deployment. Through responses to Ofcom
consultations and through dialogue with other devolved administrations,
UK government and the communications industry, the Assembly Government
has called for an open debate on the introduction of a universal
service obligation for broadband. The Assembly Government is of
the view that the introduction and implementation of an universal
service commitment for broadband should be conducted in such a
way as to incentivise and leverage investment in faster broadband
services beyond the natural market-led footprint traditionally
associated with communications services roll out.
9. As a result of Digital Britain, a new
body, the UK National Design and Procurement Group (NDPG), will
be established in October 2009 to oversee the procurement
of a supplier(s) to deliver the Universal Service Commitment (USC)
of 2Mbps across the UK by 2012. The Assembly Government will directly
contribute to the governance of this new body and will ensure
that the wealth of knowledge and experience amassed since 2002 in
addressing broadband issues in Wales is used to facilitate the
widespread availability of faster broadband services across the
UK. It is envisaged that this knowledge and experience will allow
Wales to benefit early from the USC.
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