<p>Economic Development in Mid and West Wales </p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure – in the Senedd at 2:08 pm on 5 October 2016.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 2:08, 5 October 2016

I’d like to thank the Member for her question. Of course, mobile connectivity is a non-devolved area. Where we have been able to directly intervene through Superfast Cymru, we have made great strides. Superfast Cymru will see Wales become the most connected nation in western Europe, and in parts of mid Wales, such as Powys, 63 per cent of properties are now able to access it. We’ll be working through to 2017 to ensure that the remaining 37 per cent of premises are able to access fast and reliable broadband.

It’s also worth pointing out that properties in mid Wales are achieving far higher average broadband speeds than across Wales as an average. In parts of Ceredigion, for example, the average speed is above 65 Mbps.

As I mentioned, mobile connectivity is non-devolved, but we are continuing our engagement with the mobile network operators to identify what can be done to expand coverage throughout rural parts of Wales, and that includes pressing Ofcom through meetings, and indeed through consultation responses, to use its regulatory powers to improve mobile coverage across Wales, including calling for geographic coverage obligations to be included in future auctions of spectrum, not just coverage obligations that concern the number of individuals who are able to access mobile networks.