Advanced

PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Broadband: Universal Service Obligation (7 February 2018)

Question Asked

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, for what reasons 10mbps was chosen as the broadband speed for the universal service obligation.

Asked by:
Sir Desmond Swayne (Conservative)

Answer

10Mbps is the minimum download speed that Ofcom says is needed to meet the typical needs of an average family. This will enable simultaneous live streaming of television, video calling, emailing and basic web browsing. Consumers on connections of less than 10Mbps tend to use less data, suggesting that internet usage is constrained below this speed.

Download speed is not the only quality requirement to be included in the proposed Universal Service Obligation (USO) specification. We have also proposed to include within the specification requirements for upload speed, contention (how many premises are using the network), latency (delays) and data capacity, which can all impact on what a consumer can do online.


Answered by:
Margot James (Conservative)
20 February 2018

Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.