Written question asked by Alan Duncan (Conservative) on Monday, 11 December 2000, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 15 December 2000. It was answered by Patricia Hewitt (Labour) on Friday, 15 December 2000 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Dept of Trade and Industry

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, what remedies are being considered to assist rural communites excluded from ADSL internet access following local unbundling. - Includes ref to DTI/DCMS White Paper "A New Future for Communications".

Answer: Mr. Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what remedies are being considered to assist rural communities excluded from ADSL internet access following local unbundling. [142687] Ms Hewitt: For technical reasons, ADSL will not work where the end user is more than 3-4 km from the local exchange. There are other broadband technologies available, including satellite which can potentially cover the whole country. As stated in the recent DTI/DCMS White Paper "A New Future for Communications", the Government will + promote the availability of widespread access to higher bandwidth services and bring together public and private sector stakeholders to develop a practical broadband strategy. As part of this, I chaired an initial meeting with public and private sector stakeholders on 14 December. I will be considering next steps in the development of our strategy in the light of the discussion at this meeting.

Secondary information