Mr. Jeremy Godfrey:

We have learned how the market has delivered a much better experience for many people. Of course, that is no comfort to any individual who lives in a mobile blackspot, who cannot get high-speed broadband coverage where they live or work or who drives though a mobile blackspot regularly on their way to work. I remember the last time we were before the committee hearing members’ stories about constituents who had those problems.

I will outline what we can expect to happen over the next several years to make this better. The most significant initiative has not been taken by ComReg but by the Government through its national broadband plan initiative. This is an ambitious programme, the aim of which is to ensure everyone not getting high-speed broadband coverage from a commercially rolled-out network will get it as a result of the Government’s intervention. While it is a not a matter for ComReg but for the Department, it will make a big difference to the market that we need to regulate.

We expect continued investment by the commercial sector, both in mobile and broadband networks. From our regular contact with mobile operators, they have no wish to have blackspots. They wish to improve their coverage and make significant investments in order to do that. They have to compete with one another to differentiate themselves in this respect. We expect that continued aggressive competition to continue, both in the fixed markets and in the mobile market too. To facilitate this, ComReg will release more spectrum so that wireless operators can roll out new fixed wireless networks, improve mobile coverage and mobile network capacity.

We will continue to uphold consumer rights, as well as the important, if less glamorous task, of ensuring fair competition rules are optimised and upheld.