Diolch, Llywydd. I move the motion in my name. This report is in regard to digital infrastructure in Wales. Connectivity is no longer a 'nice to have' when it comes to living and working in Wales for many people, including some of the businesses we spoke to as part of our inquiry. It is now considered an essential service like water or electricity—even in some quite unlikely places. To launch this report, I visited Mead Farm in Caldicot, a food business that relies on digital infrastructure to track the location, health and well-being of its cows and to market its fresh breakfast products in the local area.

In recent years, more and more people are getting connected at increasingly high speeds, and this is good news, but a consequence of this improvement is that frustration and a sense of injustice grows in those left behind. Those who are connected at low speeds look enviously on at those able to access higher speeds, and those with nothing at all are left with the greatest frustrations. While the Welsh Government's Superfast Cymru scheme, delivered in partnership with BT, has connected high numbers of people—when complete, about 96 per cent of premises in Wales will be able to access it, we're told—there remain pockets where it will not reach, and the roll-out of mobile phone coverage is following in a similar pattern.

I received a letter last month from Mrs James in Glandwr, near Whitland, which eloquently put the issues into context, so I'll read part of her letter out:

'We have slow broadband, which means downloading or watching items such as BBC Three is practically impossible. On a personal level farming relies on online submission of forms more and more, and the lack of mobile signal while out working for hours in the fields leads to lost time in contacting colleagues and the health and safety aspect is very worrying with one fatality a week in agriculture at the moment. The school buses which travel along the valley find it worrying that if they have a breakdown they are unable to leave the bus with 70 pupils onboard to get help. Villagers have been trying to get smart meters installed but are unable to without the most basic signal.'

I receive similar complaints in my own consistency every week, and I'm sure other Members are not much different to myself. As a committee, we want to see everyone in Wales able to access the internet at fast speeds, whether for work or entertainment, but we also need to build a structure that is fit for the future. Our demand for bandwidth has massively grown, and is likely to continue to do so. Where, once, we needed enough to send some e-mails or to look at a website, now we routinely stream tv programmes and films to a range of devices, at home and at work. 

We have made a series of recommendations to help Wales develop a digital infrastructure that is as fast and reliable as that enjoyed elsewhere in the UK, but Wales's geography puts us in a difficult position. Rhodri Williams, director of Ofcom Wales, told the committee that Wales needs 67 masts per million of the population to broadcast terrestrial television. The number in England is 12. And despite having more masts, we still don’t have the same level of coverage. So, to get mobile coverage on a par with England, Wales will need a greater number of masts, and for that to happen, we'll have to make it easier for that to happen. Filling in the gaps so that everyone can receive a good service is the minimum requirement. More can be done to help people take up those services once available, and to take potentially controversial steps to ensure that the connectivity many of us take for granted, is available to all.

We also need to ensure that capacity is there. There are too many examples where streets have been 'enabled'—I say that in inverted commas—for superfast broadband, but individuals can’t access it because of lack of capacity of the cabinet or exchange. There's clearly no point in having the infrastructure in the ground if residents can't actually benefit from it.

Furthermore, as early as last week, Members will have been told that premises in their constituencies are still to be upgraded for fibre broadband by the end of 2017. However, the Welsh Government also say—and I quote here—that the Superfast Cymru contract with BT closes in December 2017, and the costs of addressing any premises that suffer delay beyond that date will not be met by the Welsh Government through this contract. The committee would be grateful for further clarity on this point, especially as the Superfast Cymru website has recently changed. Those that were previously listed as being in scope and due for an upgrade before the end of the year have now been told to check back after this date for the status of their premises.