Broadband Connectivity for Rural Communities on Anglesey

Part of 2. Questions to the Leader of the House – in the Senedd at 2:57 pm on 28 February 2018.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:57, 28 February 2018

What we're trying to do is we're trying to test the market to see—. This is always a balance between numbers and getting to communities that have a specific recorded need. I've said this a number of times before: it's a real balance for us to know whether we should just get past as many premises as possible, regardless of whether those people have contacted us to say that they want it, or whether we should be looking to specific individuals and small groups of people who have indicated that they are very desperate to get the connection because that's patchy across Wales.

Part of the process of the tender is to see what's available for what price. We've asked the market to tell us what they're able to do, and then we can make specific bespoke solutions for places that have either indicated already that they want that or are left out of the market calculation. So, I'm afraid it's quite a complex procurement to run.

We're also looking to see what we can do with local authority partners to pick up some of the issues in some of their areas. So, there's no simple answer to that question, but we're basically just trying to get to as many people as possible for the money that we have available.