Fiona Bruce MP pleased as Parliamentary campaign for improved mobile broadband coverage triumphs
The long Parliamentary campaign to bring mobile broadband coverage to most areas celebrated a milestone today, as OFCOM finally announced auction plans that will see broadband coverage increased to an estimated 98% of the UK population, and will vastly improve infrastructure in rural areas of the UK.
Traditionally, up to 6 million people in Britain have been excluded from good mobile broadband service, particularly in rural areas. Fiona Bruce MP was one of the leaders of the campaign to increase the coverage, signing a back-bench business committee debate motion urging OFCOM to increase the coverage to at least 98 % of the population. The motion was carried unanimously at the end of a 3-hour debate.
Fiona also called a debate calling for considerably improved broadband services for Cheshire East earlier in this Parliament and for Government funding for this of which over £3 million has already been secured.
The long-awaited auction will start later this year, but bidding will not begin until early 2013, which Ofcom say is in line with its previous timetable. The regulator says it expects consumers to "start getting services in late 2013". It says its plans should see mobile broadband rolled out to at least 98% of people in rural areas across the UK, and the auction will offer the equivalent of three-quarters of the mobile spectrum currently in use - some 80% more than released in the 3G auction which took place in 2000.
This is an investment that will transform the fortunes of thousands of small and medium sized businesses, currently hamstrung by inadequate mobile phone and internet coverage. Hundreds of thousands of homes, schools, farms and businesses will get access to decent mobile and internet coverage for the first time.
Fiona Bruce said “I am thrilled by this news; improved broadband coverage has long been a point on which I have campaigned for my constituents. Investment in mobile coverage and superfast broadband is the greatest single action that can be taken to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of residents across my constituency.”
