Mr. Jeremy Godfrey:

We have not done an assessment of how to optimise the national broadband plan.

In the run-up to the 3.6 GHz award we did an assessment of what proportion of premises might be covered by different service providers using that spectrum. That was in a report which I am happy to share with the Deputy.

On the question of the role of fixed wireless, through launching the 3.6 GHz spectrum we have certainly enabled commercial deployments to happen because the spectrum is available for people to use for that purpose. One of the problems with fixed wireless is that it is difficult to see it being used as a comprehensive solution in any geographical area because of these line of sight issues. Even though I can get it, my neighbour may not be able to. If my neighbour is going to be served with fibre, they may as well serve me with fibre as well. It has not been our role to do that detailed planning but we are not surprised that the choice has been to use fibre. The Deputy also talked about the technical characteristics. Fixed wireless can certainly provide a good service. It tends to be a contended service so it could become overloaded if it was used to try to provide universal service to everybody in an area. The other issue with wireless is the requirement for future-proofing. Fibre is certainly better able to meet the requirements because the upgrading of the speeds and capability of fibre can be done merely by changing some of the equipment at the end. Changing the capability of wireless involves the deployment of a entirely new technology.