Campaign for Rural Mobile Coverage Triumphs
The long parliamentary campaign to bring mobile coverage to rural areas has ended in victory, as OFCOMfinallyannounced proposals to increase broadband coverage to an estimated 98% of the UK population.
Traditionally, up to 6 million people in Britain have been excluded from good mobile coverage, particularly in rural areas. (Mobile phone companies were only obliged to cover 95 % of the population, 90 % of the time).
Dr Coffey was one of the leaders of the campaign to increase the coverage. She signed a back-bench business committeedebate urging OFCOM to increase the coverage to at least 98 % of the population.
Therese then spoke in the debate, in the House of Commons on 19 May 2011 saying: "that there is a risk Ofcom is being penny wise, pound foolish, and that in future it could become very expensive for this country to have truly mobile broadband."
The motion was carried unanimously at the end of a 3 hour debate.
In October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer responded to the debate by committing an extra 150 million pounds to build thousands of new mobile phone masts to cover rural areas.
In November the Department of Culture, Media and Sport select committee, of which Therese is a member slammed OFCOM's coverage target of 95% as 'unambitious' and the call for a 98% coverage obligation.
In this week's announcement, OFCOM proposes options which should ensure that 98% or more of the population receives 4G mobile broadband coverage. This means that millions who currently do not have a mobile signal will now receive one, and that millions more will have their signal upgraded from a 2G 'voice' signal to a 4G signal, capable of carrying broadband data.
Therese said "this investment will transform the fortune of small and medium sized businesses, currently hamstrung by inadequate mobile phone and internet coverage. Homes, schools, farms and businesses will get access to decent mobile and internet coverage for the first time."
DCOMS
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee of which Therese is a member monitors the policy, administration and expenditure of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and its associated bodies, including the BBC, on behalf of the House of Commons and the electorate.
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For further details and to read the Committee's full reports click here.
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There is a Commons Select Committee for each government department, examining three aspects: spending, policies and administration.
These departmental committees have a minimum of 11 members, who decide upon the line of inquiry and then gather written and oral evidence. Findings are reported to the Commons, printed, and published on the Parliament website. The government then usually has 60 days to reply to the committee's recommendations.
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