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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I do not think that my noble friend replied to the point made by the noble Earl, Lord Erroll, about local authorities providing free internet access in their area, which is a much broader concept than that of universities or libraries, particularly as it will be wireless and therefore possibly more difficult to monitor. Unless there is an answer to this, it might clash with the Government’s commitment to provide broadband internet to all areas. There may very well be rural areas where the only way to provide broadband is to provide a wireless point and then have the rest of the community picking up that free wireless access, or even paid wireless access. It would be very difficult, in my view, to monitor the legality or otherwise of that usage.