Written question asked by Mark Williams (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 24 June 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 26 June 2008. It was answered by Malcolm Wicks (Labour) on Wednesday, 17 September 2008 on behalf of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

Telephone Systems

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what estimate he has made of the number of telephone lines delivered through a digital access carrier system in each region of the UK.

Answer: Digital access carrier system equipment is used in a limited number of areas across the country as an acceptable method of delivering two independent telephone services over a single line in areas where there is a shortage of line capacity.BERR has been informed by BT that there are currently around 400,000 DACS (digital access carrier system) lines in the UK and the vast majority of DACS systems are operated by BT. Following further investment in new network capacity by BT, there has been a reduction of around 20 per cent. in the number of DACS lines on BT's network in the last 12 months. This number is expected to continue to fall in the coming years as BT continues to invest to deliver broadband service. BT does not analyse DACS populations by region.

Secondary information