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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, in listening to what noble Lords have said, I have been rather attracted by the arguments put forward, not least by the idea that we should perhaps go down the line advocated by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, towards European spectrum. We all know that there are too many, if not vast, areas where reception is appalling, about which one is currently very concerned, and where the likelihood is that it will not be perfect for quite a while to come. We would be pretty worried about whether the emergency services, if needed in these areas, would be accessible via the facilities they have. I am certainly no more capable of understanding the technologies of this, but I hope that even though, as has been admitted, we may not have got it right, sufficient attention will be given to this point. Even during the cold weather we had recently, there were examples where the emergency services could not be accessed. This needs to be taken very seriously.