9. Debate: Digital Connectivity

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:30 pm on 12 November 2019.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 5:30, 12 November 2019

So, you're quite right, they have been left behind. They've been left behind by your Government, because it is a non-devolved area. If you want to invite people to public meetings, by all means invite Boris Johnson to your consistency and he can explain to them why he's not providing for your areas. We've stepped in, we've set targets, we've hit 95 per cent of premises in Wales. There are some, for good engineering and cost reasons, it hasn't been possible to reach, and today's fund that we are setting out the intention to launch will do what we can to step in to reach those while the UK Government gets its act together.

But it's bare-faced cheek, frankly, to accuse us for stepping in where they've failed to do so. They're trying to make political capital off the back of our efforts to compensate for the inadequacies of their own Government. So, I suggest they have some stiff conversations on their own side before they start pointing the finger at us.

On a technical point, Russell has made several points, and we've explained this to him before, that there wasn't a seamless transition between the first phase of superfast and the second phase of superfast, because there can't be a seamless transition, because, first of all, we have to launch an open market review to satisfy state aid in competition law, to establish where we could intervene. And having done that, we then had to procure the service. So, that was why—[Interruption.] I'm afraid I don't have enough time to give way any further. I've been quite generous.

So, we did that, and today we are launching a further open market review to see which premises in Wales don't have connectivity for up to 30 Mb per second. Russell George is continuing to chunter away—I do get a little frustrated; it reminds me a little bit of, were we to pave the roads of Wales with gold, Russell George would complain about the gradient. This is just churlish. We are doing our bit and it's his Government who should be doing the rest.

So, I think, Llywydd, I will draw my remarks to a conclusion on that, other than to say we will be accepting amendments 3 and 4. I'll just say finally, on amendment 2, again the Conservatives talk about a universal service obligation, and all of us hear that and it sounds quite reasonable. Think of the Post Office, the Royal Mail has to deliver the letter down the farm track because it's a universal service obligation—and that's exactly what should be happening in this space, as Julie James has been arguing for many years. That is not what's happening. They are using the language of universal service obligation and not delivering it, because the UK Government's version of the universal service obligation is customers will have the right to request a connection, not a right to get one. They'll have the right of speeds of up to 10 Mbps—which, had we done that, Russell George would be the first to complain of how slow that is. And any cost over £3,400—[Interruption.] No, I'm not giving way. Any cost above £3,400 has to be borne by the household, which in rural Wales, apart from the privileged few, this becomes a complete non-starter. So, this is not a universal service obligation, it's smoke and mirrors trying to disguise the fact of their failure to deliver in this space, and it's about time that they pulled their finger out. In the meantime, we'll do what we can.