Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Leader of the House – in the Senedd at 2:41 pm on 28 February 2018.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:41, 28 February 2018

Well, we've had extensive conversations with the UK Government about this, particularly in light of the Digital Economy Act 2017. They've gone for a 10 Mbps universal service obligation; however, it's not yet at all clear what 'universal' means in this context. It's unlikely to mean 100 per cent as that's not likely to be within the budget associated with the Act. We think 10 Mbps isn't sufficient, and one of the reasons we don't think it's sufficient is that it's not sufficient for telemedicine. In fact, only this morning, in my ministerial data and digital services group, we had a presentation from the Powys Teaching Local Health Board about their new community care information system and we were discussing the need to extend broadband further into rural Wales as part of the new Superfast 2 programme, with a view to getting 30 Mbps minimum speeds across large parts of Wales. It's worth mentioning that without Superfast Cymru none of that would have ever been done: no part of Powys, Ceredigion or Carmarthenshire would ever have been done under a commercial roll-out. So, it's entirely due to the Welsh Government's programme that these areas have any broadband at all.